Time
to tell me the truth
to burden your mouth for what you say
no pieces of paper in the way.

Because I can’t continue
pretending to choose
these opposite sides on which we fall
and loving-you-laters, if at all.

No right minds
could wrong be, this many times?

My memory is cruel.
I’m queen of attention to details
defending intentions if he fails.

Until now.
He told me her name.
It sounded familiar in a way.
I could’ve sworn I’d heard him say it 10,000 times.

If only I had been listening.

“Leave”
unsaid
unspoken.

Eyes wide shut, unopened.
You and me, always between the lines.

I thought I was ready to bleed.
That we’d move from the shadows on the wall
and stand in the centre of it all.

Too late.

Two choices: to stay or to leave.
Mine was so easy to uncover.
He’d already left with the other.

So I learned to listen through silence.

“Leave”
unsaid
unspoken.

Eyes wide shut, unopened.
You and me, always between the lines.

I tell myself
all the words he surely meant to say.

I talk until
the conversation doesn’t stay on
“wait for me, I’m almost ready”
when he meant let go.

“Leave”
unsaid
unspoken.

Eyes wide shut, unopened.
You and me, always between the lines.

– Sara Bareilles