These Are The Things
It’s impossible to shrink yourself into places you’ve already outgrown.
Fire smells like cinnamon in an old house. And of course it’s burning wood.
Those are the things that a knowledgeable person can tell you but won’t.
And then there are the things that knowledgeable people can’t know.
Millions of strangers in a city millions of miles from me and I can still hear my own voice rising
And I understand perfectly because how could Love work any other way than that magic?
And then there are things that I can’t understand no matter how hard I can try
Like how in a galaxy so full I can feel so alone cause I don’t know…
Hating me won’t make people love you- Oh how I so wish those words were true
But come every evening I pray to God that it was just a little less true.
So I’m left to play that smart girl that no one likes
And pretend none of it is important.
Climb on the boat and don’t worry about the shake
Just wait a couple quiet minutes
Well have to get a good while from the shore.
Maybe we still have time to fix this.
I could never be right
You could never let me be wrong
Now we aren’t even tight
But you think you’re where I belong
I never want to see the light of day
I should’ve known you’d do this to me
You don’t see what’s wrong with me
You don’t care for anything I do
But you love it when I’m weak
As long as I’m weaker than you
Through a silver screen
You come to touch me
Say, “I’m what you need.”
And every time I think you’re so right
You’re what I need on a lonely night
So I run and come back to you, eventually
Where I went is not important
All that matters is that I came home
Eventually
And you must know by now when I did
Everything was different
When I disappeared I changed myself
But that’s as messy as this mess of a rhyme scheme
It was all cold when I ran away
It was still cold when I hunkered down to hide out
It was colder when I finally returned home
Nothing changed, nothing ever changes
Because people can’t change, only the sky can change.
A moment ago no cloudy skies
Now all at once torrential downpour
The sky opens up after weeks on end
Earthshaking thunder and an instant pool in the street
And stop
All at once it’s dry again
The sky will fix her mascara, powder her nose and go on
A few minutes of earthly quiet
And then once more the thunder rolls.
You said “be true”
You said “be mine”
You said “come through”
I said “I’ll try”.
Grey blue clouds press against the city
Just like your hand pressed against my cheek
The broadest skies open up, pour down
Like you opened your soul up to me
All I said was “I’ll try.”
And I tried, didn’t I?
So I’ll come back to you, eventually.
