We Think We Own, But Only Lease

 

by Tora Chung

March 17, 2008

 

You were older, don’t forget

I loved you then without regret

Your sights were set on worlds beyond

Yet for me your soul was fond

 

So tall your head it hid the sun 

So that my world and you were one

Eclipsing all else from my mind

Like my eyes, my heart was blind

 

When in you walked the room was yours

Across the hushed and polished floors

All went quiet inside my head

Bound and gagged, the seconds bled

 

I had asked for you to play

But if you would you could not say

Then music raised me from the ground

As you coaxed a holy sound

 

All you asked was that I smile

Gentle sweetness beyond style

A youth already you’d outgrown

Inside me still, no years outshone

 

Though, with you, I’d never be

My truest self as when set free

But care not I or want to know

You were mine, though t’wasn’t so

 

In places deep I’ve looked for you

Through lasting nights of black and blue

I’ve dug, I’ve clawed to no avail

I thought you lost without a trail

 

Until at last I found my love 

Among the living gods above

Whose perfect light will never cease

We think we own, but only lease