Asphalt Meadows

Your kiss was a lonely prayer

When you slipped it into my mouth

I closed my eyes and held it in

And then I exhaled it out

The glow of the downtown lights

Casting shadows across your face

As if all the buildings knew

I could only know half of you

I was a snake under your flowers

I just wanted to disappear

Into the understory of your beauty

Never to reappear

But there’s a name writ on your cast

Above the bruised and broken bones

That tells everybody that you meet

To whom the damage is owed

We rode a wave of white noise

Beneath the city sleeping

I saw the train doors closing

I felt your sorrow deepen

Here in the asphalt meadows

There’s only one thing that grows

Finding the light through the concrete

Getting trampled under our feet

You said all your bridges and roads

They all lead to an airport

Planes drifting off into the sky

Always depart but never seem to arrive

And there in the early hour

Lying naked in your unmade bed

I was thinking of how to tell you

What my ticket read

Your kiss was a lonely prayer

A single candle slowly burning down

But the light, your light was beautiful

Within its here and now