I. You don't have to pretend.
You don't have to do
anything you don't want to do,
And you don't have to pretend to be
"the nice guy," because you already are
the nice guy.
II. You're going to make someone very happy one day.
You made someone happy today,
just by being
(if I count as anybody.)
And one day, someone, it doesn't matter who,
is going to make you see that their sun rises
and sets in your eyes.
And you're not going to tell them that they're wrong.
III. I hope you know you're bad at
keeping secrets and forgetting things and telling people how you feel,
but you're good at
picking flowers and touching faces and remembering things.
IV. You deserve everything you could ever want out of life.
And I hope you get even the things
you didn't want to tell yourself you were hoping for.
V. They said, "You can be anything."
And you said, "I want to be everything."
And they said, "You can't-"
And you said, "Watch me."
VI. Look around you.
We didn't pick your talents and faults,
your pros and cons,
and weigh them out.
We chose to love you,
completely, unconditionally, mid-season, mid-change.
Past tense, present tense, and praying to God
that you'll lend your shadow to my future tense.
VII. You are worth
$150 for an edge seat in the seventeenth row
of the Stephen Sondheim theatre.
VIII. You are worth so much more
than $150 for an edge seat in the seventeenth row
of the Stephen Sondheim theatre,
but anyone would settle for that to be able to say,
"I knew him. Yeah, the one the lights came up for."
IX. You're gonna do it.
It's in the tips of your fingers
and the breadth of your shoulders
and the length of your eyelashes.
You'll be a constellation, if you want to be.
You're gonna rattle the stars.