My Attempts To Sleep It Off

My arm’s too short to push you
to the back of my head
Daydreams pass for memories
And passing out can always pass as moving on
on these, my better days
Try as I might,
my attempts to sleep it off
are excuses to see you
even just in these dreams

Eyes closed, I’m already asleep
It’s sad to say we can’t survive
outside the snapshots immortalized
in scrapbooks and shoeboxes
You can say what you want
If we’re not breaking up, we’re breaking down

How does it feel to know
that I still feel you close?
Skin never felt so soft
And you’re hair still wet, still in curls
never smelled so sweet
It never meant that much to me until now

The doubt of every unanswered phone call
and the ghost of every
under-developed photgraph
haunts me just to say, “I hope things work out”
We know nothing worked out

It’s sad to say we can’t survive
outside the snapshots immortalized
in scrapbooks and shoeboxes
You can say what you want
If we’re not breaking up, we’re breaking down

In thirty years I hope that I look back
and only see the smiles I saved,
that I kept on file
Having cut out the piece of me
that just couldn’t forgive and forget