After Tom Waits' 'Take it With Me'

“ There ain’t no good thing ever dies”





The morning will come when
you awake with a smiling mouth
full of blue-flowered dreams.

You will say, “ I have always been here-
where the lone wave breaks
and the stones speak.”

You’ll be able, with modest courage,
to see through the petals
until the thorns smile,
and to walk, without keys,
through the doors which
continually open.

Perhaps, on that day,
I will be drunk, or I will be dead
or tired of wracking my brains
over the color of a
brilliant star-

It doesn’t much matter
because I’m already there with you,
and the reason for our meeting
will have established its deeper order
without our knowing it.

I beg you, dear, guard
your wavering flame:

already I imagine
it’s warmth

illuminating the cold spaces
between the stars
which will accompany
you each day.