How I Missed You Before You Left

I remember the guy

Who moved in after you

He worked at Clive & Martin

Downtown

And he was excited

To get to live

So close the highway

Remember when he told us

His whole life

Was work and rock climbing?

Work and rock climbing

I took you out

For margaritas

After you handed over

The keys

And you talked about

The next year

And how once it was done

You might just come back

Because you couldn’t see yourself

Living in St. Paul forever

I had just started

Seeing Jay

And you were teasing me

That he was going

To be the one

Because all of a sudden

I was smiling all the time

And answering phone calls again

You didn’t know

I was going to call you

The day after

Your boss talked to you

About the transfer

And tell you

That I wasn’t going anywhere

With Jay

That I only wanted

To go somewhere

With you

Timing is everything

Timing is usually

Where you and I

Couldn’t

Get it together

It’s not uncommon

To look at your life

Next to somebody else’s

Shifting future

And think that yours is stagnant

That you should do something

To shake things up

My sister told me

I should propose to Jay

That’s how she handles

Feeling trapped

She traps herself even more

In big announcements

‘That’s one way

To scare him off’

But she’s probably right

In thinking

That he’d say ‘Yes’

He and I both know

Where this could go

If we were open to it

The night before

That guy who liked

Work and rock climbing

Moved in

We had that hurricane

And I drove to your house

Hail threatening

To come through my windshield

I don’t know why

I went there

You had called me

To tell me

Your lights were out

And the next thing I knew

I was in the car

Parked

Across the street

From you

The power was down all over

And I thought about

Knocking on your door

Surprising you

Telling you

That I wanted to come in

That I wanted

To keep you company

That the two of us

Could sit in the dark

And tell each other

Everything

Starting with what

We’d miss

I wanted to say

I would miss you

But I sat in the car

And then

When the rain let up

I saw the lights

Come back on

And I knew

It was time

To go home