Honest

Said I’d walk to San Francisco

After everything was done

Thought the noise and moving busy

Kept my mind from really knowing what was gone

And when I finally saw it closing

All those miles across the bay

I was only standing closer to

The man I hoped to lose along the way

But if I’m being honest

But if I’m being honest

I would tell them

It’s a children's book

It’s a hospital gown

It’s an aspen tree in the summer breeze

She saw, as waving hands

It’s a watching chair

And a holy company

Like a sailing ship

Hard wrought in it

That will never again float upon the sea

I found that there’s a humor

In an old and fond goodbye

As if the early passing was a door

That she could look through with a smile

So if I’m being honest

If I’m being honest

I would tell her

It’s a pair of jeans

It’s a rude awakening

It’s a fine life lived in the privilege of standing there in the afterlight

It’s a photograph

Folded in my wallet

To remind myself that what she left

Is only growing bigger over time