All Those Other Lives

Reading from the notes in a moleskin
That you’d written when you were about seventeen
About growing herbs on a window sill
And lighting tea light candles on a balcony

Now books on the shelf
Are like children in a line
The spines give away their character
So do you have the back bone kid
To stand out against all those other lives

For two whole years it was only letters
Heartsick days tattooed on a page
And scouting a journey to be made
When a promise was not the only currency
When we give our words, we give ourselves away
You should you should have
Thou mayst, you may

And the passing of our sixteenth season we feel
We’re still drawing our water
From the roots of our family trees
And loves and letters and intentions that lead
To us standing here facing our futures like seeds on a breeze