Bones

I wear it everyday

He asks me where it came from

I answer

I don't want there to be secrets between us

Not this time

"I miss her"

I tell him

"I know"

He says

"I never wrote poetry before her"

"Neither did I"

He replies

Be cool

As a rule
I keep my mouth shut
Don't seem
Too:
needy
jealous
concerned
conflicted
I want to make everyone happy
More than I want to make myself happy
I don't fear conflict
But I avoid it
After I've said what I'm feeling
(If I can even decide what I'm feeling long enough to verbalize it)
I can never take it back
And things will never be how they were before
So I hold it in
Until I can't hold any more

21%

21% of me stayed with you
That's the number I've chosen
Even when I was sure that I could survive without you
Even when I insisted we were over
21% of me was whispering I was wrong
I tried to give away the other 79%
And that worked for a while
But, one percent at a time, the 21% grew
And now it's 97%
3% is still cautious
Still afraid of getting hurt
But 97 is so much more than 79
And, slowly,
One-hundredth of a percent at a time
It's growing
Because not even fear can stop me from choosing you