Read Between the Numbers

Floor by floor
Year by year
A magic lantern
Plays here

3
You disappeared. I
Don't know where
There are people,
People are everywhere
None are you

7
The stage is empty, the theatre too
You're beside me,
Both of you, protective, loving
But you cannot protect me
From myself, or my mind
Or shadows that creep through you
Without your notice.

15
Act out
You don't fit in
So go break everything
It isn't worth having, is it?
You fool

22
Such joy
It cannot be
Such beauty as this is
Not possible, one would wonder
It is

23
Emptiness found itself
On a barren plain
And looked over its shoulder
To find nothing there
But air
And dead skies
Please stay

35
Death tried
To claim my soul
And steal it all away
But I still have you to live for
My elf

Is it enough to say
I told you so?
I love you.

50
From here
It came to this
From then and forever
Two hearts that have beat in tandem
Years pass

100
Is it this already?
It seems so soon.
Have we reached?
Where?
There was no destination?
Oh.
Well the journey was nice, no...
Together?

Loyalty

Love is not conformity
Or based upon agreement
Or even mere opinion.
Love is not about
Doing what you're told,
Or what is best for you.
Love is not precluded
By different beliefs or thoughts
Or heated argument.
Love goes beyond that,
To something bigger
And soul-encompassing -
Love is knowing
I love you,
Even when I'm angry,
Even when I hate what you say or do,
Even when I wish you'd just go away,
For just that moment,
When rash feelings cloud out the truth.
Love is loyalty;
Not in the sense
That you or I do
What the other mandates,
But that it exists
Despite not matching up,
In spite of our differences.
It is saying
My loyalty goes deeper
Than mere opinion,
Deeper,
Than what you say or do or think,
It is saying
That you don't have to be in my image
For me to love you.
It is saying
That I will always love you
Despite disparity.
And that
Is what I love most
About this family.