everything

everything is not you, recently I’ve noticed
because like the dog I raise my head to look
whenever something might be you.

I look for you mostly in lists these days
lists of names, lists of numbers
messages left, missed calls, letters received

my friend Emily told me this is what she believes
that a dog will miss you all the time that you are gone
but when you are back, he’ll forget you ever were

I could learn to think like that, is what I think
it actually makes a lot of sense to me, the forgetting
when you’re around, that everything is not you.