Tea Leaves

You felt moved to proclaim that a dream was enough
With your face like a sphinx, the clink of ice in your cup

A remnant, a refrain, an echo, an echo
A song in the palm of your mind

A beetle, a scarab, cicadas still hum from the vines
You've wintered from summer til autumn, but you're still inside

Whatever home is yours in whatever form
Homesick, you said, but not in those words

You smiled, i think, after that i lost track
A sound with no name that's not a cry nor laugh

When your heart is a knot the size of a fist
And it beats on the walls of the cage of your ribs

And you tell me you know the right tea leaves to read
But to see them you need to steep their shadows in light

I count on my fingers the rings in your trees
And ask how you get by on the gifts the seasons bring

Abide in the swelter, the languor of pleasure
Or the language of peace

It's hot and its humid the jasmines in bloom
I've nowhere else to be

I want badly to soothe tender truths, unearthed ruins
But i've barely a clue what i need

So we go for a walk after work in the evening
And share what's been hard since we last spoke last weekend

And as I start speaking, I hear my own horror
No matter what we have, we'll always feel we need more

So we empty the room, and eat off the floor
Take turns teasing skin off the fruit from the store

And you ask if it's cruel to put on such a show
To deny that we know the slowness of kindness and love

I sat on your rug at the edge of dusk
And touched the spine of a book you said you'd read growing up

It's quiet, you're thinking, a thought keeps repeating
It's quiet enough, stop

You hear your heart beating, stop and start beating
Start beating a rhythm to your blues

A shuffle, a riddle, a shadow within your
Self-portrait in the shade of a bruise

You intend to set it straight, get it right, make it true
But there you are in the distance still digging up the roots

The artifacts, the histories
The empty hands of us apes who gave up on the trees

You shut your eyes tight and fold your arms even tighter
You said you'd eat your own words, but you can't swallow fire

You tell me you know the right tea leaves to read
But to see them you need to leave be free, it's alright

It's alright