You loved me

the way you loved your favorite book

you read other books, of course

caressed their pages in your hands

carried them with you

discussed them with pretentious people in coffee shops

but still you remembered the sentences filling up my pages

the ones which made the blood

flood straight to your heart

you often thought of chapter seven

even months after putting me down

my cover art was pretty

I looked good on your nightstand

where I slept each night

the other books

which you stayed up late reading

could never quite understand why

you would not return me to the shelf

where I belonged

But

I loved you

more like I loved my favorite song

always stuck in my head

often hummed under my breath

while in line at the bank

or belted proudly, naked in the shower

rinsing the shame off of

my body once again

one time I got so into you I almost slipped on a bar of soap

if I really liked someone

I would show you to them

but mostly I didn’t want to share you

at all

you were not a physical object like I was to you

I could never hold you in my hands the way you could hold me

but there you were in my music collection

alphabetical order

next to all of my other favorite songs

isn’t it time you put me next to your other books?

I promise you won’t forget me

even if I burn

you’ll still see my words in your mind

the way I hear your beat