The Album Leaf.

I'll remember you as a time of day.

The time when the sun is creeping right above the treeline that I can see from your front porch. The sound of running water in your shower upstairs, and me, alone. I want to sleep but the day is ready for me and I should obey. Light footsteps so that nobody else wakes up earlier than they should be, take a look at myself in the mirror and can't help but laugh at my hair. The light's getting brighter and I've decided to climb back into bed, the time on the clock reads too early for me to even think about being alive. You ask me if I want this-and-that, I politely decline, I'm fine right here, thinking about whatever it is that was running through my head at that point in time. The way you move around, doing what you need to do before you leave, reminds me of a firefly. So bright even at such an ungodly hour, unspoken contentedness suddenly surrounds me and I just smile. You sit across from me and proceed to pack all of your little things into a bag to take with you, almost as if I'm not even there and you are the only presence in the room. To me you just might be. And all I can do is smile. I pull up the seat across from you as you finish whatever it is you were doing, I can't remember for the life of me because I was so engulfed in my own thoughts, but I do remember boiling water in a blue cup. Everything about you was so, you. And you were so great. I'll remember you as that time of day, early morning before the sun rises. Thank you for the memory, I really will keep you there. And this time... I mean it.