I very quickly realized that I am jealous of everyone who gets to be in your presence while I am (so often) not.
I long to hear what glides into their ears as you speak-
your laugh, your smile, your unnecessarily broad and complex vocabulary that makes it's way into any sentence that beautiful mouth of yours sings.
oh, you do not just speak;
no, you sing.
you are a melody- the melody to everybody's soundtrack.
the rhythms you create by simply parting your lips,
oh those precious lips,
every day, those are the rhythms that I do not get to sway to as often as I so greedily long to.
I long for you, you and your melodies.

HE:
It was a long while ago
since I left my village
There’s been no word
no traveller with news –
and I am dying for any song
from the girl I left behind


SHE:
It's been some time ago
Since that boy left me behind
Where he is, nobody knows
There's been no news to find
I would like to just sing him one more song
About how he's the boy that I've loved for so long
Maybe he'll come to me, in my dreams
But in reality, he's nowhere it seems...


HE:
The day’s work offers diversion
but the quiet evening
brings back the pain
How is she now
the one I left behind?
I see her still in my mind –
across the river
and she would not wave goodbye


SHE:
I regret not waving to him
On that dreadful final goodbye
I wonder if he thinks of me
On that last day, did he see me cry?
Daily chores and family
Offer me some solace
But nothing feels the same
As when him and I were US


BOTH: (Chorus)
Staring at this glassy water,
Our eternal hearts divide
Do you stare at the same moon’s reflection
From the other side?
I hope you find my love one day
Floating across this wayward water
Until then, I will pray
Our hearts are broken no longer

The preacher said
he was better
than the taxi-driver
because he showed
people, with all his words,
the way to Heaven

The taxi-driver said:
*"You might show them
the way to Heaven
but I show them the way
to God -
for everytime I start to drive
passengers start to pray
and they pray all the way
And I don't even have to say a word"

so I brought my writer wife
(prominently pregnant)
to the hospital
and on her bed, she screamed:
"weren't" "hasn't" "couldn't" "shan't"
"aint" "hadn't" "you're" "isn't"
"aren't" "didn't" "wasn't"
"who's?" "what's?" "he's" "she's"

The doctors were confounded
and they turned to me and they said:
"What the hell is she doing?"

And I replied with double speed
and a violent sense of urgency:
*"Don't you know?
She's having contractions -
she's a writer"

Would you sell your soul for smiling
count my worth in copper coins
lay in darkness everlasting
trapped within these mortal *****

Push against the pins of daylight
lest their glory guide your eyes
away from me until the twilight
brings the pain of dark desire.

Tear at flesh and mark your longing
there upon my yearning breast
rid my heart of others wanting
until you are all that's left.