From NH with Love

I want you to come back
If only to tell me lies again.
It's always been love/hate with you.
I'm not the only guy to have said so.
I know you.
Close my eyes and see your sunshine smile, your awkward gait.
Hear the drizzle of banter about the second graders you visited yesterday,
Predict the moment you'll rock onto tiptoes
Voice crackling like sheet lightning
And say something to make milk come out my nose.

For as long as I can remember,
It's been hit and miss,
Hot, and cold with you.
No, I didn’t mean it like that.
The highs always bring that knowing smile,
But it was the lowest lows that made me hopeful
The way blizzards quietly promise a snow day.
Your voice, Scratchy, familiar, and welcome.
The first I heard in the morning,
Gave me a reason to open my eyes each day.
And peer through the summer haze.

I still really can't trust you. No one ever could
You're like the others, only with better delivery.
The reason I love / hate you.
I stopped counting the days
You woke me up with a downpour of lies.
Not every day, sometimes just a sprinkling,
We both know you tried.

When you were wrong, and I believed you –
It really was more your fault.
I always thought I would be the one to leave.
But it’s you.
You saw red skies in the morning,
A barometer showing the front that had come and gone without you overnight.
Were you tired of the same old schtick, or was it getting too comfortable?

I've insulted you.
It’s no more personal than the changing of seasons,
Which we still take personally.
You hardly know I exist, and soon I won’t know you either.
I’ve insulted you;
I’ve defended your honor, but I’m done defending you.
I won’t need to anymore.
The sun rose today on a generation that will grow up in your absence.
After so long, you're moving on, without me.
Wanted, but no longer needed
If it’s any consolation you won’t be replaced.
Not by any smooth talker, chesty blonde, or scrolling ticker on the bottom of my TV screen.
Just gone.
Like memories of the Old Man, another icon that will fade.
I want you to come back, weather man
If only to tell me lies again.
And forecast HIGH pressure, on channel 50,
Just one more time, Al Kaprelian.