| We could blame it on our hands,
|
| They lifted the drink to our mouths so we drank it. |
| Or
|
| we could blame it on our bodies,
|
| they say, «We like the way we feel
|
| when we get touched.»
|
| You’ve got your fingers snared in my veins,
|
| I think it’s time you pulled them out.
|
| And I don’t care about the flesh it’ll tear,
|
| it isn’t flesh that I’m worried about.
|
| We held a match to keep our sight on the path but the flame gave up and we lost
|
| it.
|
| And I’ve knelt for the last three years trying to find it back with the
|
| blackened matchstick.
|
| Today I’m not afraid of failure.
|
| «The past is a flower.
|
| The future: the snow.»
|
| I wasn’t ever close to perfect, but
|
| I didn’t let you go.
|
| You let your doubt like a river lead you
|
| on and on and on and
|
| you will never get back to save what you had, hear me promise, «I will
|
| bury your problems in me so sleep soundly.»
|
| I held your heart in my fingers now it’s
|
| gone, it’s gone, it’s gone and
|
| you will never admit that you bid the wind blow the flames out
|
| And buried the coals in the sea.
|
| You tricked me.
|
| You came back and you brought floods
|
| wearing a necklace made of hearts that you’d dragged through the mud.
|
| I guess I wasn’t quite sure what to do.
|
| But then I saw mine, almost reached out to grab it. |
| Said,
|
| «Darling, you’re the only one on Earth I want to have it.»
|
| But now I’m not so sure that that was true,
|
| after the hell you put it through.
|
| But there was no sharp pain this time,
|
| just the ghost of your presence compressing my chest like a vine.
|
| An unshakeable absence,
|
| like most of my insides crawled out through my mouth and went west.
|
| But that’s fine.
|
| We cast our hearts in plaster.
|
| We imagined our bodies were fashioned from stone but
|
| they chipped at the brick and the mortar,
|
| We found out that we’re only layers of skin hiding bone.
|
| And our bones are like chains, old and rusted in the rain—they're going to snap
|
| when the weight shifts.
|
| You moved like a fire through the forest.
|
| You’re hands were as red as the skin on your lips.
|
| You’d been flirting with distance, princess,
|
| I tasted its spit in your kiss.
|
| Oh, mistress, know:
|
| Today I will bury the flames of your failure.
|
| The past is a liar, the future: a whore.
|
| I’ll lay your bones into the earth and you
|
| will haunt my head no more.
|
| We could blame it on our hands, but
|
| it was our mouths that opened up to swallow and
|
| our heads that commanded us drink.
|
| But as I buried your flames in the dirt,
|
| I watched the smoke pull your ghost from the grave. |
| And
|
| I fear they’ll only lay in wait till we are face to face again.
|
| Just when I said, «I'm moving—I'm moving on.»
|
| I felt them come to life again.
|
| There are fires that tear through valleys and make dust from grass.
|
| There are wires—bound in blue light they pull us to the past.
|
| We are tired. |
| We should’ve known from the start that this thing wouldn’t last. |