Lyric

At noon, the rain still held

On the rim of the jar

Your name sat quiet there

Like fruit beneath a scar

I kept the chair by the sink

For a story that won’t stay

The house learned all my steps

Then forgot them by the day

And the room went thin

At the edge of light

A small bruise moon

In the window white

My hands found ash

Where the warm things were

Still, something in me

Kept reaching for her

Stay, stay, under my skin

Falling like rain in a cracked porcelain tin

Hold this shape while it bends

Love leaves a mark, then starts again

Stay, stay, in the grain

Sweet as a bruise when the weather turns strange

If we break, let it sing

I keep the aftertaste of everything

A train of rain on the roof

Wrote circles in the dark

I set two cups on the table

And listened for a spark

Your absence had a weight

Like wool in summer heat

It pressed on every hallway

Then drifted through my feet

So I named the ache

By the salt in my throat

A folded-up hymn

In a paper coat

The night bent low

To listen in

And all my ghosts

Moved back within

Don’t go, don’t go, through the seams

We were a thorn with a sweet, silver sheen

If your shadow comes near

I wear the hurt like a second year

Don’t go, don’t go, let it stay

A little dark honey at the edge of the day

If the frost comes in

I’ll keep the aftertaste of everything

Take the window frame

Take the rain-soaked shirt

Take the last bright word

That still knows your hurt

I won’t ask for gold

I won’t ask for sleep

Just a sign the night

Still remembers me

Now, now, the room lets go

The cracks in the jar glow low

We were soft and we were strange

Two small storms in the same old range

Now, now, watch it fade

Love turns bitter, then learns its own name

If the dawn takes wing

I keep the aftertaste of everything