Page 136 of The Devil We Know

Where I wake up and don’t think

About what is missing

All these fucked-up emotions

Fire and ice in my veins

When at the end of the day

Everything I have to say

Comes down to

The simplest of sentiments…

I miss you

Come back

Declan’s final words come out a broken whisper, and then Connor immediately stops playing, his band picking up a tempo without even needing to be cued. I swallow the lump in my throat, wanting nothing more than to curl up around Declan andsoak up every second of his pain, but knowing that will never be possible.

So, I do what we do best. I lift my mic and let the words out.

Time, what a messed-up notion

As if it gives a fuck about you

Or me or how much we depend on

Such things as hope and infinity

How we lie to ourselves habitually

Leading our lives with the arrogant notion

That it won’t run out

That we won’t be left standing here

With our ass in our hands

As we wax on poetically about love

Lost, while wallowing in deep misery

Some people will say we reap what we sow

That we’re weak-willed, willfully

Incapable of moving on from the bad thing

That didn’t even happen to us

As we still live and breathe

But fuck that and fuck them

The unsolicited judgment of those