Misadventures in Hide-and-go-Seek

Misadventures in Hide-and-go-Seek

By Ava Rose Larkin

It seems silly,

If I’m being honest, silly that your hand fits

Like a puzzle piece into mine,

That your phone number will never leave my brain.

Ironic isn’t it, that your phone number becomes the ringtone that gets stuck. 

Shouldn’t that be opposite?

But if I’m being honest, it’s not just your 

Phone number. 

It’s your voice, telling me your phone number for the first time.

And then, by extension, it’s you singing 

Happy birthday to my dad and sighing yourself deeper into a hug and 

Whispering my name into a kiss.

Even the smallest pieces of my heart

Cry your name in my sleep

And, to tell the truth, in my daydreams also.

I’m not alone, though I tell myself 

I am nothing without you

I cannot go on without you.

It seems silly, but it’s not. 

It would be silly if we were playing hide-and-go-seek,

A game where the point is to lose someone and then oops!

You found them again.

If we played hide-and-go-seek now

You’d be somewhere else and I’d be playing

With my reflection in the mirror.

Silly is a fantasy now.

Silly only exists in my dreams,

Ones where I can actually dial the phone,

Call out ollyollyoxenfree and you’ll pop out

From some cabinet or behind the coats

In the closet.

One where it’s not just me,

Whispering your name in my sleep,

Pretending I can and will move on.