Good Enough

for a friend

I am tired
of hearing you’re not good enough
for me. I’ve heard it
once too many times before.
I was not the one
who said it. But if you insist
on discounting my feelings
and on always being right,
then yes,
you are not good enough.

You are not
good enough for not even trying
to be there for me
despite the doors I threw open for you
before you knew to knock on them,
for being so paralysed by your visions of failure
we never had a chance to begin,
for letting me walk the tightrope
across the canyon of the unknown
alone, with no hand to hold.

We have so little time on earth,
my boy. My ears have heard
the words you are just once
too many times before — I have no space
in life for your endless uncertainties,
of my not being good enough for you
to risk falling for
even when I have been falling
for you
every day we’ve known
each other.

I am tired
of listening to the words you say
and feeling the things you don’t do;
I can’t stay any longer
waiting on you when I need to walk
where arms are warmer. I can live
with not looking back, but is this the end
the one that’s good enough for you?