“I Don’t Need You” by Jack Kimball

I don’t need you. I don’t.
I don’t think about how you made me laugh;
how no one comes close to you,
comes close to you even by half.

Can you come by to pick up your things?
There’s no hurry. Save your breadth.
I did keep the scent of you
which I’d hidden away when you left.

You’re gone.  I don’t need you at all.
Come take back our memories and go.
There’s some that were new,
and some from centuries ago.

Here’s one from Alfredo’s. You know the one
taken just when your eyes said you’re it.
And this one has the love in you  
just as we vowed to commit.

I may not even go Tuesday
and look through the window again;
and pick out our table for two.
This time I’ll hold back.  This time I’ll hold it in.

I don’t need to remember we danced.
Your teasing me; a high drunken clown.
I don’t need you to know it’s true
that I never really came down.

I remember those days;
our bodies tangled together at dawn.
This is something I don’t need to do.
I don’t need to care; after all, you’re gone.

Since then I don’t have the words
for what I’d meant to say.
I know sorry just won’t do
and it’s far too late, far too late anyway.