Thank you.

Thank you for your broken love.

For not waiting until you’d perfected the art before gifting it to me.

For loving urgently, immediately, not threatened by my childish preference for perfection,

Undeterred by my demands for something better, as if I knew any better.

Your unabridged, raw love - mined straight from the ground,

Impurities and all.

Never waiting till the crucible ran clear to crown my head

You were the fire and the gold.

Thank you for your borrowed time.

Guarding diamond pebbles in an hourglass that you don’t get to spend, 

Gathered minutes you wouldn't get to keep.

Every hour, every moment, every second, every beat,

You gladly miscounted and spent a little extra on me.

Like a poorly planned shopping spree.

You really only had just one life,

Why spend so much on me…?

Ran an open tab with the timekeeper,

Never watched the clock.

All my memories are drowned in your tick tock.

Till I forgot how to walk,

I just danced to your tick tock.

Thank you for your reckless hope

Not finding your future in the stars, but wishing on them anyway.

Filling my head with a fool’s dreams

Then daring me to dream even larger than fools.

Showing me I had no one’s shoes to fill,

And my feet would grow as big as I wanted them.

That my cup was too deep to be empty, and to pour myself out without fear

Leading an orchestra, composing an opera of me - not knowing if you’d ever get to hear.

Tick tock was just noise to me then. 

I never knew.

I wish you’d told me what you knew.

Just how priceless each moment was with you.

I would have saved every penny, 

haggled every vendor, 

counted every second, 

paid for every hour.

Loved you so much quicker, so much bigger, so much louder.

How could I have known it would be so quiet?

That after tick tock comes silence.

So what do I say when I have so much to pour, but your cup is full?

I have a million different ways to count one more second with you.

What do I say when I’m living your dreams, but you’re asleep?

When the tick tock stops, but not my feet, always slightly offbeat?

So what do I say when my love outruns the clock?

That’s simple. I say:

Thank you.