This song ended like a dry heave halleluja
Like the auction caller ran out of breath
Like we both had nothing to sell and nothing to say

And I've been waiting fo that gasp
So this song can come back.
Been adding gunpowder and tobacco leaves to my coffee
For voice like the earth
To sing a song written like dust kicked up in the ways we walk away
In dirt brown cursive
And choke on your harmonica inhale

You left me speechless
With the things you said to me
Your rusty bear trap dentures gnashing

Spitting out the venom
you ****** from your own wounds
Your music tastes bad when it's lost it's tune
When Captain Morgan set your soul to sea
Poppin' pain killers because the pain aint free
And momma's got a new song now

Long after the men have left to the stairs to smoke
And the women wait with them to be walked to their cars
You sit on your piano alone
Still singing
Warped wreckord throat
A song all slurs

I leave with the men too

And it's just you
In your tiny room

The door slowly closes behind me
and your song is cut short

And I catch myself singing along in the silence
And realize

I'm out of tune

what is it like
not to hear?
not to know
what what what
you are saying
right in my ear

I've kept every ticket stub
to every movie
I can't watch now
because you are the face
on the screen
and I thumb through the pile
and as much as you talk about Delpy
or Marling but I don't know
if you ever knew that you
were my real leading lady

On a night like this
I find myself gazing
upon the serene glow
of the midnight moon.

The sterling light paints
the fields and casts shadows;
creating a scene of
surreal silver night.

How the moon dances
in the ebon twilight!
Dancing to nightingale songs,
dancing gracefully.

The shines tonight.
Set aglow by the moon
and all her luster and grace.
Making me feel whole.

And as she departs;
falling to the coming dawn.
My heart tears as I yearn
for that sterling light

Even as the sun
sets the morning dew ablaze
with golden rays so bright.
I watch her leave.

As she descends
from the heavenly canvas
her cleansing light, her touch
leaves the painted fields.

I will remember
that evanescent hue;
the last breaths of the fainting moon
as it leaves the sky.

But it isn't the light
I cherish now.
It is the memory
of that piece of eden.

The piece that shaped me,
that piece that made me whole.

The light coats the rolling hills.
Leaving dense shades in their valleys.
As the soft wind brushes the jade grass
and leaves its print in the land.

The sights, the smells, the senses,
You can almost feel them all.
The warm summer air on your cheeks.
The sweet scent of roses.

But after the first frost
only the memories remain.
Sleeping only to return
Laying dormant in the cold

But the warmth stays in your heart
You yearn for it, you dream of it to return.
But nobody should dream of soft summer winds
While the frost still coats the vales and hills.

I am there
Wishing that if I pressed my fingers to your lips
I could understand the broken Braille of your breath
When your throat locks in the noise

Gentle butterfly gut
Fanning flames over burning cinderblocks in your belly
I am there

When you wished the moon in a rearview mirror
Heading west
Wondering if you really could go far enough to see its dark side
When you wanted to turn back
I was there

When she drank razorblades
And Tylenol ink
Into a botched suicide note
I was there

This is the journey

When he wondered when he could hold somebody again
Like a waterbed full of blood
Without the motion sickness
I was there

Every moment y’all
Of your ***** sacred
I want to be there
So when you see that this place is so big
And you are so small
And our souls might be stardust and minerals
Burning blue so far away
At least you’re not alone

Your body is built for love
She said
Beer breathed and true
I smiled
I was there

Kiss me with your car parts
DUI this knee buckle
I want to be tried and arrested
Spit out and spanked
And I will still kneel before you
And praise all that is good in you
Because you are holy

Every moment of you is holy

I was there
Begging to be baptized by your presence
Because in a place so big
I don’t want to feel so alone anymore

I want to kiss you
I want to kiss you
Like you are better
Than everything you’ve ever done
You are

I was there
When the world inside your breastplate
Spun natural disaster
And sunshine
Anvil remorse
And sweet laughter
When I held you
Any of you
And our worlds
Vibrated a conversation only our souls could understand

I was there
And all we could speak was “LOVE”
All we could speak was “Us”