Where Are You?

This is the time when I text you

I’m bored in this hallway all alone.

I need to see your familiar smiley face emoticon

But you’re not here,

Where Are You?

This is the time when you call me.

I hear your little voice:

“We’re here, Alex, I Love You.”

But now all I hear is the emptiness,

The quiet that could kill a man.

Because you’re not here,

Where are you?

This is the time when I teach you.

Mom has been giving me hell.

“Don’t be like me, Sis.” I tell you.

“Maybe you still have a chance at

Being what they want.”

You are what they want,

Everybody wants you.

That is when you’re here,

Where are you?

This is the time when I protect you.

The kids at school have been giving you hell

Again.

I tell you the stories of when I wore those shoes.

One of them goes too far,

I threaten him, I know how to scare young children.

I take you away, dry your tears.

Tell you it will be okay.

When you come back,

Where are you?

Mom is mad at you again.

She puts way too much pressure on you.

I know better than anyone.

You messed up again, like we all do

It’s not Mom’s fault that she forgot what it’s like.

That tends to happen when you destroy yourself as she did in mothering us.

Actually it was I who destroyed her,

You were the Miracle Baby.

But she forgot, nothing personal.

It’s because you’ve been here so long.

But not now, so tell me

Where are you?

2010 by Alex Gross