A Maybe Should Have Future Poem by Ben Partenay

I read your words
over and over like a habit
I tried to quit, you are probably thinking
I'm the one who is lost in this story
you are probably thinking, just another
maybe love song
that didn't sit just right.

sure, I was lost, I drove across the
bones of the country just to find
a rhyme, a reason, a way to get away.
and sure, I've felt my ribs as a cage
and wondered if a heart floats when
It's full of love and whiskey, but I
can't tell you that.

I read your words and drank my coffee
I read your words and leaned back
all the way in my chair until my
world tilted and vertigo and flight
meant the same thing.

in the future, your future, I'll maybe
be driving. I'll maybe be lost in the
ribcage of some broke down town I
wanted desperately to understand. And maybe
I'll think of you and turn the radio up
with the window down
with my hand out, tracing the wind
with my eyes closed
I'll dream of you, maybe, as the miles
pass. I sure was lost, and maybe,
that's all I should have
said.