I watched you
in the mirror
brush your hair
two hundred times
and I wondered
if you knew
that I could see it
in your eyes.
I asked
if you were going to leave me;
you said “No”,
and then went anyway.
I knew you needed an escape
from this insane holiday.
I had broken
every promise
I had made
to be good to you.
I smoked
one thousand cigarettes
while I looked for you
in the rain.
Soaked to the bone,
ruined my phone.
I couldn’t call,
I didn’t know
that I had really left you
after all.
Three little words
that cost a lifetime.
Just like a murderer
I faced the judge.
A head full of whiskey
and badly cut cocaine;
I just can’t hold a grudge,
I know what I was.
One hundred days it cost me,
laying in a jail cell
and when I came home
there was no sign of you,
like you never
were there at all.
Oh, I’ve known loneliness
and hard times
and I have seventeen regrets,
but you aren’t on the list,
’cause Baby;
you were Heaven sent.
If I die lonely,
go back to prison,
or if I find
new life to live,
I’ll always think back
on your beauty,
because in the end,
you were a gift.
I’ll hold each brush stroke
through your hair
as a lover’s kiss,
a sweet caress.
Two hundred times
each night I watched you
get ready for bed.
At least a man
like me can die,
or move on
with his life,
knowing he’s known love
and when I step out
in the night,
I always look for you,
even though I know
you’re never there.
That’s what love does
for a man
who’s going nowhere.
HG – 2017
