where/when/what/why

where/when/what/why do they come back
stronger every time i try to persuade
myself you never existed before? thoughts,
strangers i know but close the door
on, bring me to the brink/rataplan in
my chest to show you were alive, my
old friend who never knew how familiar
i wished we would have become until
well after we were/the one who always
wore my words in weathered world as
though a coat to cover from elements.

can you outlast my love in metered rhyme?
i try to throw you for a loop
so you see how mind works
more than melody.
i never saw the strength of word in restraint
when the world is open to much more than
can be held with pretty words,
the sorest type when heart is held
in palms to be free of cage itself.
foraged for those phrases you want to hear.
never thought you’d feel the same
until
forever came knocking while
i was incomplete, taunting me
with sweetened kisses in a driveway
i will not look at the same again–
how much time it took to be strong enough
for mouth to make a move the mind
always thought impossible.
i gave back my staunch opposition to
the life i meant to lead much younger than
when i realized it could be.