companions

Solitude, the ball and chain of my heart. You have kept me through this season of life, kept me. I resented you, even hated you at times, your burden seemed so hard to bear. But now I look at your face wondering if I’ve learned from you what I’ve always known I needed.

Silence. I never knew your name before this captivity, before being named with this city. Now you are my intimate companion. You are the way I express so much of my heart. You say the things I cannot say, through your vast vocabulary of…nothing.

“With the exception of your voice, no, I’ve never felt like crawling up into a sound and living there.”

You are teaching me to dance, and I like it. I’m scared, but I want to learn. Hold me tight, lead me the way a lover leads. Listen to my voice and fall in love with me again. I want you to know that I sing only for you. Though others may hear it, I sing for you.

I sing for you, my lover
As you lead me on paths so green,
My feet ache with memory
My heart with desire
Dance, dance

Don’t you see me
Coming to life in your arms
Coming to love in your embrace
Hold me tighter, spin me ‘round the room,
Till I’m dizzy with this fire inside.

Come find me again, I’ve lost my way
Trying to find the dancin’ hall,
Lost my way, gropin’ the wall,
Hiding behind flowers and
Hoping I won’t be seen.

Come see me! Though everything inside of wants to run. Come look at me.

My eyes are closed, hoping the world has disappeared, hoping that I have become invisible as I close my eyes and sing.

Come sweep me off my feet.

Grace is gone.

You exhilarate me,
exasperate me,
enliven me,
exhaust me, and sometimes you even
embarrass me.

All your changings, all your moody subtleties,
they happen like shadows shift through day.

my friend, my mirror

The lines on your face reflect my own.
Warm eyes are weighted with years of life.
Knowing smile carries a realistic hope with gritty determination.
We have grown, you and I.