James Friedman
If I died in a distant land
The leaves would sweep me up
I would be reborn again
To follow you, wherever you go
And I’d wait for you to open up the door
You floor me so
The more and more I know you
That blue feeling retreats
To somewhere far undertow
And sure I’d like to reach the light
But I fear any afterlife
above or below, I couldn’t be long
If you weren’t there to make it home
And if I’d lived
A second more
That in death I’d have no memories
Linger from my life before
The day I met you I was reborn
And I’d die a thousand times
Never forgotten, or alone
And yet for all the tears we cry
For although we’ve felt forlorn
Even a scent or tincture of you
Is a reason to be born
In the sand or in the sky
Wherever God is breathing life
Forever those churning nebulae
Who for a thousand years and more have formed our outlines
below the stars
and mirrored upwards evermore
Yet In the face of pooling dread
The brink of never-ending death
I wouldn’t falter from what I’ve sworn
I would choose you again instead
And if in your eyes I looked for the last time
With no lifeline ahead of me
The end of Earth and of all things
Every single star to ever be
I’d see then a fuller hue, laying deep inside of you
The kind that gaseous light burned for eons to produce
So when your heart finds its trust
And when the hate is let loose
When the sadness leaves us
And all traces of who we were are scarce
Well
It was enough
My love
They tell me to find god
But to hold on I had to decide I wasn’t alone
So I blindly flung myself into what was keeping me alive
Love is the name of the thing unquestioningly
for which I would die
Likewise I decide I live once, thrice, or 400 times
From the first birth to the last stroke of the sun slicing the Earth
I would rather smoke line the horizon than be buried cold in the dirt
Every word is a war waged against hatred and the dark
Her arms are so warm, more than passion they remind me who we are
Our names will last into the abyss that swallows the stars however bright
Our love will last into the absence
And wound the dark with scar light