there are half a billion ways

there are half a billion ways to say i miss you:
that i am waiting like the breathless still body
of an ocean calling back its waves,
that i am reaching for you as a sapling stretches
its fingers for sunlight,
that i am in the pause before the snowflake
flutters down towards its kin,

none of these are true, because my waiting is less beautiful.
i am a girl who stays up too late remembering the way your smile
crinkles your eyes, a girl who turns and sighs under the absence
of your grounding arms, just a girl who thinks that of all
the half a billion ways there are to get to where you are,

just one would be enough,
if i could take it.