Quieter enjoyments promised in a simple friendship, 
softer dangers that might leave you hungry, 
too afraid to not be on that imagined stage, 
for fear of missing something that might never return.

To yield from the fiery starblast, 
thousand-armed thunderclouds, 
booming fierceness, 
a fight that holds my curious, dreamer-eyes awake.

I should have said yes to your extended hand. 
Played at life from round dining room tables,
behind locked doors, 
with security at a phone call distance.

Should have stayed safe from darkened streets, 
stripping eyes that never saw me, 
but saw only movements living in the lamplight alley.

Should have said yes to a hidden tomorrow,
gifted, preserved, outlasting the hormonal rush to die all at once, 
rather than slowly losing myself in the years that came.

The book is closed, 
time is an old window that only stares out over the ocean. 
waves ripple where memory blurs, 
not many changes back then, 
I can only say yes to how I see it now.