(with thanks to Adrian Henri for writing a poem I fell in love with when I was 13, and to S. for being the person I fell in love with 5 years later and at least once every day ever since.)

Without you, Nightwish albums would only be played
Once.
Without you, every edition of "Neverwhere" would be the wrong one.
Without you, Leonard Cohen would have marched on Berlin first
and lost Manhattan.
Without you, I'd forget to check the fat content on curry sauce.
Without you, Junction 11 of the M40 would get up
and walk away.
Without you, 11 months would seem like so much longer,
and they did.
Without you, Nesquik would stop making chocolate flavour.
Without you, I couldn't stand the posers at Metal Night.
Without you, Alabama would have left Clarence sleeping, and disappeared forever.
Without you, I'd probably go to bed earlier and get up before noon,
but there wouldn't be much point.
Without you, B5 buses would circle the town endlessly, full of screaming children,
and never stop.
Without you, Toys R Us would only sell life assurance.
Without you, "Pulp Fiction" would play in chronological order.
Without you, snakes at London Zoo would just be snakes at London Zoo,
and none of them would look like Willem Dafoe.
Without you, the fine lady would have got to Banbury, turned her white horse 'round,
and ridden away again.
Without you, Prime would have given up and let the Decepticons win.
Without you, I'd probably spend more time writing,
but it wouldn't matter as much.
Without you, the world wouldn't smell different after rain.
Without you, I'd tell doctors "just cut the cord and kill the pain".
Without you, there'd be
no kisses in supermarkets,
no moments in churchyards,
there'd be no chaos/no order,
there'd be no method/no madness,
without you.

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