TIGHTROPE

my voice does bend through alleys

and bounce off all the buildings

as I'm calling for you

it's the call I don't remember anything before

it's the melting into the streets like water

running through cracks in pavement and into gutters to find you

and it can look like high rise hotel rooms

and it can look like soccer fields with deaf orphans

and it can look like an observatory at night

and it can look like a room that's a camera

the light bends in and upside down

as my voice bends up and out and around

for you

and you call me

and I find you

at the other end of the tightrope

and I say, thank you

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

this tightrope

the most steady ground I've found

NASHVILLE

you turn my months into hours

so let's drive to nashville tonight

SNOW DOWN

so I'll splash in the shallows

see, I saw white mountains so it's already spring for me

I know that everything's melting

before the experts do

yeah, and I'll sing alone

I don't need their harmony

your spirit sprinting is enough for me

the whistle of your wind as you blow by

because this thing is a craft

the expanse of the earth : the unlocking of the heavens

of course I don't wear black anymore

weren't you paying attention?

yeah, this story's already over

call it an epilogue or a prequel, whatever you prefer

we're relics walking

and I'm waking, waking, waking

SEVER

I love being a spiritual creature.

I love them because, well, you do.

and you say, don't lean too hard on that camera

because there is such a distance between the lens and the subject.

you're filming a wall, you say.

a veil.

to be severed at any moment.

SINGULARITY

it's why I always loved the movie interstellar.

we loved it together.

I may have sat in that theater with a love I let go of

but I'll never forget the stars stretching

the decrescendo and climax

as everything slowed to silence

and you pressed the bands of time

reaching out a stranger's hand

to message our world.

"what was that?"

"first handshake."

so anoint me.

I'll find oil as I wipe away tears

it catches the light on my fingers

see, I'm here to be here

and it takes how long it takes.

you find me.

and yet my deepest fear is not finding you.

my favorite feeling in the world,

two lines crossing my forehead.

my favorite sound in the world,

the whisper of an otherworldly tongue.

you find me.

I beg you to keep reaching through.

I'm empty and flat without you.

why did you wait this long?

but I have to trust that you're the best heart.

every day when I wake up,

all I want is you.

when I was old enough, you stripped all else away.

you pulled me into angular momentum

and hand-fashioned my stellar birth.

I love our scratches on the wall.

we just try to capture what we can

the steaming of tea, the crushing of leaves

charts of chemicals and cameras pointed at the wrong things

at the end of it all, let me capture heaven.

you say, putting the lens on is the first mistake.

to bend photons neatly into shape

to give us clean pictures.

the grace of you.

to let us see miracles, to see more

heaven and earth just passing through, passing through

in the light of your singularity.

SWELL SWELL

swollen eyes catch your swell, swell,

and all swells end swell.

my shoulders extend to feel the sun as it threatens to burn.

i am faintly aware of toned muscles beneath my golden skin.

my short hair falls in wisps around my face

gently lifted by the same wind that brings the saltwater in

that will bring in a thunderstorm tomorrow

to rip through the sky with lightning and to rip our tents from the sand

that causes the dark foam crashing

to never leave my ears.

i calmly level my swollen gaze at anyone who wonders.

they all wonder. and i smile.

my soul loves.

the spark of my hair became a flame

and now a braid descends down my back

a volcanic stream, restful, consuming.

faith consumes.

there is absolutely no place like your heart.

i'm never going back.

i don't even remember the way.

DEEP

you called my deep to your deep

and my spirit said yes, oh my soul

and my soul said no, for to drown

but you said still come, child;

you will walk on dry ground.

THESE DAYS ARE ART

you have ripped the veil.

and i hear the sound as i cling to your arm

songs that remind me who i am

what we've seen together

gifts like jewels raining from the ceiling

i remember how a day would stretch over horizon to horizon 

and i would just sit in that chapel, just sit with you.

foxes creep into corners

but i'm in love with you.

i'm in covenant with you.

until the day breaks

and the shadows flee.

your hair and the car window frame my lens

the sun filters through, our constant

hearken, you say, to my heart

i want to seek you out

as my contact lenses drift over my irises and it all bleeds into light

these days are art.

i gently let the sound unfurl

it's the sound of me unlocking the liftaway

your love will be safe with me.