what the fire knew

i was the match and you were the smoke,

i've known for clinging to things that always broke.

and i've known we burned like brush in a summer drought,

fast and quiet, then flickered out.

saw the river ran with what we hid,

now carried the weight of things we did.

i've prayed for the warmth, but you ran from flame,

and still, i stayed. i stayed the same.

your silence wore the shape of shame,

but i still missed you just the same.

i missed you in wind, in sleep, in bone;

even when i knew i’d die alone.

and you counted love like sheep on a hill,

said don’t touch nothin’ or you'd get us killed.

but i’d have taken the heat now, do i?

what’s one gone lamb

when the rest run by?

told ya we could’ve had a house, a bed,

somewhere your hand could rest 

instead of flying off like something caught;

a wild thing tamed, then quick forgot.

the mountain kept our only truth,

a love that never left our youth.

the world don’t bend for boys like me,

so i only had you carved into memory.

they never asked, we never told.

we left it all to fire and cold.

but i still dream in dusk and dust,

and hope your ribs remember us.