The other night you reached up to the sky for me And pulled down a handful of stars To keep in my pocket You gave me the North star on a silver band To always show me the way home To remind me that home is wherever I’m with you You gave me the key your dead-bolted heart And I will carry it with me everywhere I go On a string around my neck Or in my pocket full of stars So as not to let it slip through the Sidewalk cracks of my hands.
I used to see the stars from my window every night And send my thoughts across the reservoir to you Like the winds that blow water into waves Tears welling up over the spillway Pouring over onto cold cement Pounding like my beating heart A storm in a teacup A tempest inside this body of water Inside this body of mine And with each ebb and flow it swells Knowing so well this whirlwind of feeling Spinning tipsy through my soul A gentle hurricane, a familiar flooding Of safety and contentment and longing and warmth Rocking me to sleep when I can’t Curl up in your arms.
They say that all the bodies of water on this earth are blue Because they reflects off the color of the sky So I went down to the reservoir With my pocket full of stars, The ones you picked out just for me, and Set them free, one by one, On the waters’ edge with Wishes tied to their backs in the hopes That they’d make their way To the night sky above our wondering heads In the hopes that they’ll shine beyond The milky light of the moon That creates a film across the darkness With the promise that I’ll carry your heart with me When we part ways for the night.
These days when I lay down to sleep My ceiling’s full of holes from fallen stars That I’ve wished back into place But didn’t give enough time to grow Their roots back into the sky. I wake up with stardust in my sheets, Empty space where your body should be And the water from the tap just isn’t as blue As the reservoir’s on a clear day And the city lights stay on too long Keeping me from seeing the stars When I look out my window at night. But I still keep the key to your heart On a string around my neck, Resting just above my own beating vessel. And I still wear the North star on my ring finger To lead me home again.
For now I am your latchkey kid Sitting on your front steps With the key to your heart slowly Growing warmer in my grasp Knuckles white from mid-October wind Rushing through my jacket. Here I sit Watching dusk stretch it’s hands across the sky Looking for the pocket full stars that I set free Waiting patiently for you to come back And show me the little tricks to Unlocking the door to your heart, The way you have to turn it just a hair to the right And push against the doorframe An un-exact science I haven’t mastered yet.
I can picture you now, behind your counter Selling liquid stardust in pretty little bottles Packaged painkiller in a clever disguise I imbibe in the hopes that stars will fall At my feet to grant me one last wish. And at night when you return from the closing shift Smelling like hard work and strangers’ ***** Find me on your front steps, shaking in the cold You take my hand in yours, guide the key Watch it do its job, the hardest worker Letting me into your tired arms Where I can feel your beating heart Crash into mine like waves. We’ll sit here on your front steps for awhile Watching the stars slowly float away from each other
In the reservoir of the sky.
Title credit goes to e. e. cummings, *i carry your heart with me*