I’ve got this teddy bear.
It’s been in my room since we were 18.
I bought it for you but you left town for first year before I could give it to you.
So the bear just sat there. Waiting.

I left home eventually too, leaving the bear alone in my room. Hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away from either one of us.
When I came home in June I forgot the bear was there. You and I met up in July for a waffle date, I left the bear at home.

The next time I would see you was in December. You came over and we spent that afternoon watching movies. We caught up about this and that and we even sang together for a little while. The bear was upstairs in my room the whole time. I thought about running up and bringing it down to you but something stopped me that day.
Every single time I saw you I thought about the bear sitting alone in my bedroom.

You left for school again and so did I. I hated the idea of you being on your own out there so far away from me and our precious bear.
We were about to turn 21 and there were many things I wanted to do to make it special. I hadn’t quite figured it all out yet, but I wanted you to have the bear. It was not much but I didn’t want to keep it any longer and I didn’t want either of you to be alone ever again.

But time and distance did their work on us,
As time and distance do,
And I realised how naive I had been to think that we were destined for a different outcome.

I still have the bear
He’ll be turning three this December
I had hoped you would give him one so he still doesn’t have a name
But I think I’ll call him
Sisyphus