I can’t stop reading, I can’t stop learning, I can’t stop looking at the words you never meant for me. I read them backwards and twice a day and at night when I’m almost positive I don’t want to wake up. I read them when you can’t see what I’m doing and while I soak in your smell. They make me stomach turn and they make me miss home. They wrap themselves around my wrists and share stories with my veins and I want nothing more than to follow them back to you. Its the sound of rubbing your hands together and the click of your bedroom door closing and the sound of tape ripping your picture down. The sound of the snow at midnight when you walk outside to get away. The sound of skin under the blanket we share and the smell of my pillow when I push it up against the headboard. You’re in the sound of the shower and the car door slamming at dawn. The sound of bare feet on the floor and the way your laugh echoes off the walls because we’re in an empty room. You’re the sound of cell phone speakers and the water on the tile by the front door and the crowded pocket where I keep all my receipts. You’re the sound of pencil on paper and the left handed smudges you leave when you write. You’re the windows opening up and the blinds crashing against the wall and the crack in the floorboards and the break in my back and the sound of breaking glass. You are warfare in the desert and gun shots underwater. You are the first page and the last letter. You’re the last thing I see because I’m going blind, say something before I’m deaf. Save me a place next to your mind and I’ll keep it safe. Hold my hands up to yours and rest your head on my shoulder. I’ll ward it all off. I’ll fight all your battles with my own two hands. Don’t do a thing. Don’t even try. Let me take this on for once. I can hold up the world, I promise. I’ve been carrying a few for years. One more couldn’t hurt.