Is that why you play the music so loud? A beat to drown out the thoughts, sound so high you cannot think, lyrics so close to home you don’t even blink.

You were always miles away. Maybe you were just always meant to be miles away. The distance saw us together in a dream and thought we were better off without all the mess.

You are a lonely sailboat, afraid of drowning where no one will see.

You won’t remember, they say, when someone drifts away. One minute you are talking about life’s greatest adventures and listening to mixtapes on Monday afternoons, and the next their presence is replaced with silence: a fragile nonexistence with nothing else to lose. But I will always remember our drift. It took up all this space, like a planet with many moons. It was the year you forgot my birthday.

If you are in love and the love is returned, be grateful. Because if you take love for granted, it will be overturned.

Your feelings are valid and real. Do not let anybody denounce them just because they do not feel the same way. These feelings do not make you weak, or clingy, or overly emotional. They make you strong, brave, and beautiful. You are not merely made of stardust; you are the comet streaking through the sky on the way to do good and bright things.

You’re beautiful without even trying but each time I bring you a flower it ends up dying and you don’t see how I look at you you just keep crying and the saddest part is that you’re so special but you think I’m lying.

The aches in my arms still surprise me, even years after letting you go.

If I had any say and my life to do again, I’d have moved us closer.

I am sorry we are in different states and towns.