One: Sometimes I still think about you. The words you spoke to me were like a fresh taste of water while I’m drowning in the middle of the ocean.

Or so I thought.

I thought you were a life vest, keeping me up in the waves. I was wrong.

Two: I was my own life vest. I didn’t need you to keep my floating. I’ve been helping myself through the waves for over a year and a half now. Almost two years. I don’t need you to keep me up.

Three: But it was nice to have that sip of water. It was a coolness that I’ve never felt. Like spilling ice cubes onto desert sands. Like showing a fish how to walk down a street. Things are so special if they’ve never happened to a person before.
Four: But if you’ve never seen Psycho, don’t you dare settle for Paranormal Activity 4. Don’t you even think about wasting eleven dollars PLUS money for popcorn PLUS the gas it takes to get to the theater on a crappy movie. Don’t you DARE think that you might as well go, just because you haven’t seen it.

Five: If the review is doubtful, think about it.
If your friend is doubtful, think about it.
If your best friend is doubtful, think about it. Hard.
If your mother is doubtful, do not go.
If your own self is doubtful, set the theater on fire.

Six: I regret telling you my deepest, darkest secret. It’s one that I had to duck under the surface and swim to the darkest depths in order to find the courage to tell you. I thought it would bring us closer. I believed that if I untied the threads that held my soul together and tried to tie you in it would heal me. Instead, it made my soul stronger.

Seven: I don’t need those threads anymore.

Eight: I cannot believe I’m even writing a poem about you. And I’m ashamed that it’s not my first one.

Nine: I’m scared to death thinking that everyone who hears this thinks I’m crazy. I’m crazy ‘cause of my thousand ocean analogies and that I’m losing it over a person who couldn’t care less about me if he tried. I’m crazy because I thought he was a life vest. Well, I am crazy. I’ve lost my damn mind if for a second I actually believed I couldn’t keep myself up. That I couldn’t dive over the waves myself. That I needed someone to inflate my vest for me. I have my own air. I might be crazy, but I can blow up this vest myself.

Ten: But I’d rather be crazy than drowning.