Everywhere but beside You by Matthew Milia

Summer’s sticky sickness
And one Jehovah’s Witness
Knocking at my sticky summer door
Just swishing beer
And wishing I weren’t still living here
With nowhere else I think I might like more

Guy in the alley
Screaming a finale
About some money that somebody owes
Well, I’ve been going a long time owing
A debt to someone I don’t even know

There wasn’t much to say the day I met you
Wasn’t much to do all summer long
But I could tell
From the moment it fell
Everywhere but beside you felt wrong

So hold a second
And tell me what you’ve reckoned
About the night that we spent on the floor
It’s gotten pretty quiet on the lonely-hearted diet
As I scavenge through the drive-thus evermore

Having slammed the cupboard
I hit the northern suburb
Where the cashiers at Home Depot know my name
I duplicate the house key
That you forgot to leave me
And every cashier last year felt the same

There wasn’t much to say the day I met you
Wasn’t much to do all summer long
But I could tell
From the moment it fell
Everywhere but beside you felt wrong

And after all the birthdays this fall
Everywhere but beside you will feel wrong

Appears on On the Northline