Stuff I've Been Feeling Lately

by Alicia Cook

Track Two You always want one more day. You always want one more picture as the old ones begin to fade. You always want that one final hug to have lasted just a tad longer. You always want the fondness of the remember-whens to outnumber the might-have-beens. You want more years, more months, more weeks, more days, more minutes, and more seconds. You want the happily ever after you always thought you deserved, but the only thing actually promised in this life is uncertainty.

All my life, my footprints were repeatedly washed away by the tide, as if I never existed there in the first place.

Track Nineteen

There are lay ers to loving me. In the beginning, I am quite easy to love. My surface is smooth, my smiles tender. But as time undresses, my insides are revealed to be rough and ragged. It will become awfully difficult to love me. At times, borderline impossible.

Many have left; for people would rather see a car accident unfold from afar, than be the shotgun rider. Until you. Only you can see all you see, know all you know about me, and still look at me like this. Cur...

want you to know, I love you the other 364 days, too. All the commercially popular grand gestures in the world could never compete with the millions of everyday little things you have done, and continue to do, for me. You continue to love me when I am, by definition, unlovable. You continue to love me when I don’t particularly love myself. You allow me to remain my quirky self in a world that prefers conformity. I can only hope I bring to you the same feeling of completeness and unconditional acceptance that you have given to me. Love isn’t about tangible things.

Love has always

been about two people. And since we are only allotted one life per person, I feel undeniably privileged and fortunate to get to spend my one lifetime with you. Cur...

I have lost my voice trying to convince people I love of their own potential.