Slow Joke Grin

You with the diamond hands

The quick wit, the sentences

I have no plans

You're the only home I ever wanted

Now five floors above

The siren moan

The steam pipes ticking all morning

I can hear the neighbor's babies through the walls

Love is a songbird with a sickle claw

You with the slow joke grin

Watch the town torn down and built again

In the pause between the riddle and the punchline

The kite tethered tight to your chest

But I was never one to second guess

Or draw a line between love and fear of loneliness

You with the sawdust tan

Broken trigger on the starting gun

I can't find another way to say I want you

I ought to pull this hook from my cheek

But I'll keep on shouting from the fire escape

I'll keep shouting from a wide, fan window

From a bridge, from a field

From a ferry in the harbor

From the soul-dark wound of a mountain

I want you

I want you

I want you

I want you