When We Weren't Strangers

When we weren't strangers
We suffered the problems of familiarity

We knew too much
We kissed too much
We loved too much of each other
And what we couldn't love
We assumed would depart
After simply loving
Harder than we already did

We went to cities
And stood in streets
And felt cars pass through us
Going to places
We didn't need to go
To feel important

We made love on what we managed to unpack
While the paint on the wall was still drying
And the landlord was still dying to ask for a higher rent

We lived in cardboard bedrooms
And plastic kitchens
And styrofoam bathrooms
And slept on ugly polka dot mattresses

I knew where your head belonged
And you knew where my hands should go
And I developed addictions around your compulsions
And you grew to love the things I forgot I loved
So that you could remind me

When we weren't strangers
It was strange how well
We did together

Stranger still when you left
Saying I knew you too well

I knew you so well
I knew you would leave
I knew you would leave me
For a pressing engagement
With natural growth

I knew every mistake
You'd have to make
After me

Mistakes you couldn't make
With me

And I forgave you
Before you even knew
What you'd do

I forgave you while you were lying there
On our polka dot mattress
In our cardboard bedroom

I forgave you and gave you permission
To go

And somewhere inside your sleep
You heard me

And somewhere a man
Saw something he liked
Under a streetlight
On a perfect night

And still
He crossed
The street