A year older

*We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I’m standin’ there
On a balcony in summer air
See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
See you make your way through the crowd
And say, “Hello”
Little did I know

I don’t know why I have Taylor Swift playing through my mind when I think about you and me. In the rain. The taxis. At the ice cream parlor. At the Ethiopian restaurant. Walking home.

Because, it was not like Taylor Swift. Mostly not. But I remember when I knew that you had found your way through, and occupied a space that no one had before. I did not think of forever. I’m afraid of forever. Forever seems like such a long time for an anxious wreck.

But somehow with you I was fearless.

*And I don’t know how it gets better than this
You take my hand and drag me head first
Fearless
And I don’t know why but with you I’d dance in a storm in my best dress
Fearless

And though it felt like a whirlwind, I had known you two years before, and my memory serves up a glimpse of you at 12 when we shared the same classroom.

*Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said, “Stay away from Juliet”
But you were everything to me

You were, trouble. The demystification of the warnings, my undoing. And I had stayed away, as long as I could.

I was never that girl. You were never that boy. The one whom crowds drifted towards. The one whom girls pined for. But before you I stood as if your world revolved around me. And you stood, before me, just a boy, behind those small dark mischievous eyes and your tall imposing structure.

You would be pain and you would be pleasure. You would be confusion and you would be clarity. We would be different and we would be the same. And maybe, you would be the one for me.

Happy 3 0 s.

Taylor Swift- Love story.

Taylor Swift, Fearless.