TE20 Migrant Mosaics

Songs for 3:45 am

3:45 AM

The trees, that’s good, yes, let’s start with the trees, how they’re almost all the same at dawn, like now. There’s little light, I’m cold. Inside, you’re sleeping. I’m silent in front of the only one I could talk to right now. I’m not shivering, so no one can tell I’m freezing. I say something to myself, I can see my breath. I watch it. In this sparse light, that’s nearly all I am, watching everything sleep with eyes half-open. Your eyes, your closed eyes inside, are light, simple, like the sky at this hour. Like anything at this hour. I should light up, that’s why I came outside. No, I came outside because I couldn’t fall back asleep. And I hate waiting. I should wake you up, I should tell you to look at the color of my eyes, yes, that there was a time I thought even that a flaw. I don’t understand why you need me, I’d tell you, easier to say with the smell of your lap fresh on my hand. And I don’t know how long you’ll need to hold me on a given day to hold me over until nightfall, so just hold me. These are the kinds of things I should say to you.

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