Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
 
I listen to old songs
Old songs I used to enjoy
Old songs whose melody
I sing with lyrics from memory

I listen to old songs
Old songs I no longer enjoy
Because they're songs I listened to
When I was me before you

I listen to old songs
Old songs whose taste has soured
Because they're songs I heard
I’ve cried
     I’ve cried to

And yet they’re songs that saved me
Songs that kept me company
Because they’re songs I lived
I’ve felt
     I’ve felt sad to

I listen to old songs
Old songs whose taste has sweetened
Old songs while I'm yearning and waiting
For what you are now to me, darling

So now I listen to these old songs
Old songs I'll again enjoy
Because it reminds me of how I prayed for you
And how I'm lucky I no longer need to

I listen to these old songs
Old songs as I’m me with you
People look to me to solve their problems
Fix their lives, make everything okay
But what if I myself am a puzzle
An unsolvable equation
Then who gets to fix me?
There is three, a trio of sorts
That gives me what I need
For each of the ways I bleed
Sometimes it's my soul
My beating heart
My plagued mind
They all love my sculpted body
But none can I keep
They are all forbidden to me
Belonging to some
Or belonging to none
Too old
Or too young
I will forever be alone in my being
I am merely a fascade
Only to look at with craving eyes
And sensual thoughts
Sultry words spoken
What became of her?
With her raven hair
And marble flesh
Dark woven gown
She glides amongst the luminaries
Seeing who is free
To be with her
Until time to sleep
Who is she?
She is me
Aphrodite
The trio
I don't have long you see
Needing to make a possibility
Out of you and me
But it seems we are heading towards
Tragedy
I cannot be free
Unless you set me
Let me out of my cage
This bird needs to fly
Dying inside I am
I need alive to be
I don't have long you see
Escape
I looked to the horizon,
Expecting the ocean to show me where to go,
Its waves pulling me in different directions,
Telling me where I should be.

But as I sat still,
I felt the tide shift within me,
The pull of something deeper than the sea.
I was not lost;
I was the ocean.
We are only human..
messy, miraculous,
wired for touch and tenderness.

The science tells us:
we live longer
when we’re loved well.
Our bodies calm
in the presence of another.
The heart slows,
the breath deepens,
our minds soften
when someone truly sees us.

We are not made to do this alone.

And yet…

How ironic,
to hold this truth,
despite always knowing
how to be alone.

To wake alone,
and not ache.
To eat in silence,
and feel nourished.
To soothe yourself,
hold your own storms,
speak kindly into your own reflection.

What a strange kind of wholeness:
wired for others,
yet utterly at peace
in your own company.
Next page