I'm Not Lying

It wasn't fair, not to me, but least of all

to you. It became a game between three

players, one player who didn't even know

he was playing.

You may have had no chance of winning,

but here's my truth: I would have given

it up, all of it, just to have the assurance

that everything would be ok.

I would have saved you if I could have.

I'm Not Lying

Ellen Wittlinger

I am lying in a clapboard shack

the wind blows through. It has followed me

all the way from Boston to this sheltered

harbor where I am less protected than I've ever

been. Invisible as a fish in the ocean

I've tried to listen, to understand the

mystery of two people who could almost

touch, except they have in common trusting

no one. I'm not lying when I say I tried.

I'm not lying next to you

and I never will. There was a night

we needed more than affection

though neither would admit it.

To tell the truth it couldn't matter less

who wears the pants or the dress, but only

who becomes visible to whom.

You saw me truly, and I saw all you let me;

I'm not lying now, and I hope I never will.

Please

I just want to know you're ok.

You've told me before, told me that I'm the one who reminds you to be good. I took it very seriously when you told me that. I took it even more seriously than when you told me you were praying for me. 

That's why I'm trying to remind you again. But you're not helping to make that happen.

I need you to write me. I need you to acknowledge that I am trying to get in touch with you again. I need you to remember our friendship and what it did to both of us. 

We're not children anymore, you even more so than myself (you're the one of legal drinking age) and it terrifies me that you have this reason to screw things up and forget who you are deep inside yourself, beneath all of those layers of swearing and "cool" and fakeness (I truly believe that you are who you were with me, that this person you show to everyone else isn't the real you). 

I feel responsible for you. I just want to know you're ok.