7.

At some point, they stopped calling it
goodbye.
The years rolled in and out,
the seasons flowed sweet and bitter
they both stopped getting taller
early on
He dated a series of foolish and wonderful girls
She put on her backpack and didn't come back
for  a while

They talked on the phone
in moments of heartbreak and nirvana
He described in detail
the patterned chemical response
of our habitual emotions
She told him that she danced under the moon
She slept in his bed when she visited
His girlfriend didn't care for her after that.

He showed up at her house 3000 miles away,
set up his pup tent in the yard
befriended her boyfriend
Was waiting there for her
when she got home.
He photographed her like no one else:
she looked more like herself in his photos

Maybe, he told her,
because he saw her so rarely
he could see her simply as she was.
Or maybe, she answered,
because he saw her so rarely
he could see her only as he imagined her to be.