Like Sunburns on a Starry Night

I don’t know if they told you

But when you leave me, I end up staying

Like a broken promise on your tongue,

Waiting to be uttered;

Like a crystal of sugar in the wrong dish;

Like the dust caught on your window when you were looking to catch fireflies;

Like sunburns on a starry night;

Like a smile at a funeral and a sad song at the disco;

Like the remnants of broken mirror balls on all our dance floors,

Where you now struggle to piece back your own reflection;

Like the first bitter second of the citrus on your tongue, when you almost spit it out

But it clings to your lips, no matter how many people you kiss;

Like the glow-in-the-dark stars on your ceiling

That your mother got for you as a kid,

And now they just hang on, waiting for you to believe again;

Like the color pink that young girls abandon at 13

Only to come right back to it;

Like the backseat of the bus on our school trip,

Always filled but still empty

Enough for you.