My hands would find the notes hidden beneath the skin of your lower back. Pressing into your spine like piano ivory. Taking care to avoid the black keys. Breath to carry the melody past your ticking mind. Warming your belly like fire and hope.

You are so silly sometimes.

Unaware that the song was written all along in the sheet music stretched behind your eyes. I play by ear.. because I see it. And I hear it. And I've heard it before.

It's caught in you. Owned like the tide in the shell.

It is a secret song. Something sweet and strange. Nostalgic. Honest. Beautiful.

When it isn't a siren call...

It is a lullaby.

In the key of "we".