Long-Sugar

You were all knees and elbows

Too tall for that small-town bar

Chewing on a matchstick

Laughing like you owned the dark

I stole a sip from your cola

You said my name too slow

You drew a heart on the table

Then hid it with your elbow

Long-Sugar

Sweet on my tongue again

Your jacket on my shoulders

Your name in every lane

Long-Sugar

Running through my youth

You never promised always

But you tasted like the truth

We missed the last bus on purpose

Bare feet on the river stones

You told me stories in fragments

I filled in the parts unknown

Sticky hands from shared peaches

June stuck to our skin

You traced the lines on my lifepalm

Said

"This is where I begin"

Years stack like records

Dust on the old turntable

I still stir two spoons of sugar

Though I say I like it stable

Friends say you kept on drifting

A kite with a broken string

But sometimes I hear your laughter

In the clink of a glass

In the ring