I will tell you a story when you stop telling me about the innocence of God and Nature combined. And I will tell you a story when you stop reminding me where I am in relation to where you are. I don't want to know anymore. I will tell you a story when you stop letting me taste my own tears. I don't even like salt water. I will tell you a story when Sufjan stops playing on repeat in my mind, grooming my thoughts and taming my brain. I will tell you a story about the history of the planet. How tens of thousands stars exploded before we were even considered. How those tens of thousands of stars are missed. How much their neighbors in the universe miss them and want the warmth of their light and their touch back. How those tens of thousands of stars fell back down in clumps creating everything we know and knew and are waiting to discover. I will tell you a story when you've finished writing books and stories and papers on the thoughts inside your head that don't even exist. You wish they did. I will tell you a story when you stop singing songs to soothe your own aching heart. I will tell you stories of where I came from and the smoothie of fruit and wine from which I was made. The blender of color and and trees and sign language from which a hand reached into and found me there, lurking in shadows of light and space. I will tell you stories of how I was waiting to be found, and the fingers that grazed my back were the best I could have hoped for. I will tell you stories when you stop lying. When you stop pretending your a giant and a savoir and something bigger and greater than anything I could have ever imagined. Let's pretend like you are. We can pretend that you have ears the size of elephants, and that youll take the time to listen even if you are 368 miles away. I will tell you stories of my father and my mother and the way they liked to yell. I will tell you how we went outside to pretend like we weren't here. About how we built houses in the trees made up of needles and leaves. I will tell you stories of my sister and my cousins, how we had races and drew faces in the sand. How everything used to be sand. I will tell you of the crayfish and the frogs and the monsters we found. I bet you never knew. I will tell you a story when you stop hunting for gold in the darkness and the blindness of iron minds and cole mines and corn fields. I will tell you of the way our legs would itch after running through the neighbors yard, chasing lightning bugs and picking flowers and chasing each other. I will tell you of the way my ears itch waiting to hear you. Waiting to make sure you remember, even though I know you won't. I will tell you stories when you stop throwing your thoughts away and when you stop burning down everything you built. All the houses made of twigs and hay. I will tell you stories when you stop killing yourself and stop breathing fire like a dragon. I will tell you stories I think you'd really like to hear. Stories you wouldn't even believe. I will tell you stories.