The Lunchbox on the Steps

A missed call on a quiet screen

Still ringing in the spaces between

And a dented lunchbox on the front steps

Holding the shape of what never left

I stood there long enough to know

The porch light hung the evening glow

Your name still bright in my memory

Like a streetlamp flickering back at me

A missed call and a dented lunchbox

Two small signs of a life that stops

At the edge of the house, at the edge of the dead

Were the words I meant to say

A missed call and a dented lunchbox

And all the love that time forgot

Still waiting on the front steps

Still waiting like an espalette

Picked it up, it felt so light

Like a promise sworn then by time

One bent lit, one cracked blue corner

A little bit of us in the order

A missed call and a dented lunchbox

Two small signs of a life that stops

At the edge of the house, at the edge of the day

Where the words I meant to say went away

A missed call and a dented lunchbox

And all the love that time forgot

Still waiting on our front steps

Still waiting like you never left

I keep the porch light on tonight

For the missed call in the fading light

And the dented lunchbox by the door

Make a heart I can