Long Gone

This one's for you, Love,
as you listen to the songs
that got you through
the nights I sent you to.
I know it's not much,
but what's lost in translation
between long and long gone
are the remnants of this fading ink
before I could tell you it had dried
a lifetime time ago.
I always was sorry you saw it in my eyes.
For you or for me, I'm back and forth.
Cause with it there, you never saw it coming
and it left you on the floor,
getting to know the pattern of the wood
by the lines you wore out where you stood
stuck
forever there.
Death be unto whatever may be fair.
I made my own rules.
You coulda never won.
But you ain't a fool's fool.
Just one who thought he could love
this ragged heart from where it stopped
to where we'd start.
But it was dark
and the night ain't easy.
I know it was me who left
but I wonder sometimes if you ever miss me.
Just know I didn't mean it,
all the heartbreak you took on;
that I'da loved you if I coulda,
but instead I write songs
at unwelcome hours
with thoughts responding in kind,
trying with every unsent letter
to undo time.
But like the pain was yours,
the mistakes are mine.
We'll both find a way to be better for it,
though alone we stand divided.
We may never walk together again,
but I'm glad I found you for a while.