SONG TO MYSELF

I have found you again, after so long I can hardly recall

Your touch or your portrait

Or what was important

About knowing you at all.

I have found you again, in your workclothes and your cowboy hat

You fit me so right,

It was love at first sight,

And it was love every sight after that.

(welcome home, welcome home)

I have found you again, in the crush of the juniper stand

I thought you were dead,

Or had got scared and fled

Like the bird worth two in the hand.

I have found you again, your face from a fable or myth,

But even Narcissus

Gets tired of kisses

When there’s no one to share them with.

*

I have found you again, where the sky and the ground fight for space

I have seen your terrain

Through its losses and gains,

I can see how it’s writ on your face.

I have found you again, you look older than the picture on file

You’ve lost all your tallow,

Your fields are fallow,

And there’s crow’s feet when you smile.

*

I have found you again, I must have been easy to miss

I’ve been a cretin,

Misguided and beaten,

I’m sorry for you to see me like this.

I have found you again, I said to the good man I was,

But I know the moral:

It’s foolish to quarrel,

Because love is just as love does.

(welcome home, welcome home)