She’s leaving home,
Going miles away
Under the disguise
Of a student learning,
The only way they’d
Let her out of the country.
She sat across from me in a corner,
I scraped the blade of the knife
On the tablecloth, making impressions
With my nervousness, our spare time.
What’s wrong?
I have been here before,
A feeling,
”deja vu?”
That we have sat admiring
Each other’s fears,
”deja vu!”
Maybe I am repeating it all
(No, I had a dream,
Another one,
With you in it, and me),
This table, this corner
Lights dancing on the ceiling
Your eyes, your face
Pinned to the wood behind you
The bowls were a different color,
For reasons I can’t remember
”I hate people who try and interpret
The dreams of others”
(Then I won’t try and understand it)
Unexpectedly you wanted to go with me
You had limes needing slicing
I had a knife,
You had glasses that needed filling
I had hands to hold the bottle.
We watched a disc play images for us
We kept the lights on,
Imagined them off,
Ourselves in a theatre.
She’ll come back
And I won’t know her,
They’ll be a world,
That will dwell in her
And cannot be explored
To those who remained
In the states dealing.
She’ll sit across from me
In future corners,
And laugh to herself,
Something will remind her,
Send her to that world
Away from me.
I fell to my knees on the grass,
In the shadow of my house at night,
But not before you held me
One last time and I said,
Don’t change,
(Don’t change too much)
You’re perfect.
