I cannot sleep tonight
The interstices between my breaths
Scream for fulfilling thoughts
There is nothing but rain spitting bitterly on the street outside.
A beautiful woman sings at my feet
She asks me not to look for love or freedom
Perhaps I am not free to love her either.
I cannot sleep tonight and will not sleep for a few more nights
Years
Until my hair runs so long
That anyone would know it's mine
Anyone would know it's me that they are to seek
And love.
The woman smiles and sings again
I will listen to her, I do not want to sleep
She tells me of stones that maidens pick up
As they splash their way
To the river that births a village
And the maidens pay the unpayable maternal debt
In what else but tears
No stone was a gem, so the song goes,
No happy endings appear.
The woman at my feet is cruel, I think,
The woman at my feet is wise,
Yet I string my few pebbles into a necklace.
My eyeballs are no less stony
No wonder I cannot sleep tonight
And will not for some nights more.
The woman will sing
My heart will weep
As I see her go.