1. That before him, the sound of love was a car engine backing out of your driveway at 2AM.

2. That before him, love was a father who wasn't allowed back in your home.

3. That before him, love looked like your mothers wet face and shivering body on the edge of her bed when she thought you and your brother were asleep.

4. That at the age of 10, all you knew of love was leaving before you were left.

5. That sometimes, you wish you could let yourself be vulnerable long enough to memorize someone else's arms and ears. To trace lips that aren't yours, to touch their more private parts, like their mind.

6. That you break too much. You run away too often.

7. That sometimes you hear Etta James whispering, "At last..", In your ear when you clutch at his wrist.

8. That, there will never be another you.

9. That his name sounds like a wolf howling in agony at a full moon, like an arrow hitting its mark, like the shape of your mouth when you make a wish.

10. That sometimes you put on your mother's face at the dinner table. That you're afraid he'll never look back, or he doesn't know you'll follow him anywhere.

11. Or that the tears you shed for him have never dried.

-k.w.