nobody's wife*

when you got...
I just couldn't
when you came back
she was no body's wife
one more thing
she sends her regards
time to get -
it was a good run
what can I tell you
my brother
today like no other
I guess that I miss you
I guess I forgive
you stood in the rain
soaked ribs splayed
(I still don't own an umbrella)
if you ever come by here
yes, well
the trouble
as I see it, there for
maybe I learnt when to get out
if you've a memory
of the set we created
that looked like the house
we shared once,
a tapered diorama
like a school urchin's
fruit-box, filled with
hanging packing-tape
planets with hasty rings
swinging and glittered
it wasn't
to scale
just to see if you're better
putting together
your own own again
I hear that you're building
a gin-bottle Babylon,
a kinda record to your
progress, scratchings
of triumph right?
a cigarette now
since you went away
you seem more you
than ever, it's gorgeous, I love it, another cocktail?
another locked park
meet every train at the station
you came home without living
treat me to a
flake of your life
and I'll get you cut out
by fire-men
tickets you don't use
stubbs and suggestions
maybe I learnt when to get out
from you




* after Leonard Cohen