Lyric

I found your list in the drawer

Folded under paper clips

Milk, soap, tape, and apples

Little things with careful lips

Then there was the empty space

Where your wish should have been

A line that stopped mid-breath

Like you let the day back in

I read it slow

I read it twice

The blank line glowed

Like a tiny night

You wrote the errands

You wrote the need

But not the one soft thing

You kept for me

What I forgot to want

What I forgot to want

Was the warm little thing

Hidden in the wrong

What I forgot to want

What I forgot to want

Was your name on my tongue

All along

There was jam on the margin

And a bend in the page

A cartwheel of groceries

From some ordinary day

You knew how to ask

For oranges, tea, and bread

But left that one bright wish

Sleeping in your head

I traced the space

With my thumb

So much said

By what was unsung

The room went still

The clock went light

I felt your almost

In my hand that night

What I forgot to want

What I forgot to want

Was the warm little thing

Hidden in the wrong

What I forgot to want

What I forgot to want

Was your name on my tongue

All along

If you come home soon

I’ll be brave enough

To ask for the thing

We were scared to touch

Not a grand parade

Not a velvet vow

Just the wish we skipped

Can I say it now?

What I forgot to want

What I forgot to want

Was the warm little thing

Hidden in the wrong

What I forgot to want

What I forgot to want

Was your name on my tongue

All along