Surgery seems so unkind... but look at face.

Just before our love got lost you said, "I am as constant as a northern star." And I said, "constantly in the darkness, where's that at? If you want me I'll be in the bar." On the back of a carton coaster, in the blue TV screen light, I drew a map of Canada, with your face sketched on it twice. I am a lonely painter, I live in a box of paints. I'm frightened by the devil and I'm drawn to those ones that aren't afraid. I remember that time that you told me, you said, "love is touching souls." Surely you touched mine because part of you pours out of me in these lines from time to time... I met a woman, she had a mouth like yours. She knew your life, she knew your devils and your deeds and she said, "go to him, stay with him if you can but be prepared to bleed." You're in my blood like holy wine, you taste so bitter and so sweet, I could drink a case of you, darling and I would still be on my feet...

Finally, for the first time in 3 years, this really is goodbye.

Great Lake Swimmers

I was lost in the lakes and the shapes that your body makes, that your body makes, that your body makes, that your body makes. The mountains said I could find you here, they whispered the snow and the leaves in my ear. I traced my finger along your trails, your body was the map, I was lost in it. Floating over your rocky spine, the glaciers made you, and now you’re mine. Floating over your rocky spine, the glaciers made you, and now you’re mine. I was moving across your frozen veneer, the sky was dark but you were clear. Could you feel my footsteps And would you shatter, would you shatter, would you? And with your soft fingers between my claws, like purity against resolve, I could tell, then and there, that we were formed from the clay and came from the rocks for the earth to display. They told me to be careful up there where the wind blows a venomous rage through your hair. They told me to be careful up there where the wind rages through your hair.