One and one-half wandering Jews
Free to wander wherever they choose.
Are traveling together
In the Sangre de Cristo,
The Blood of Christ Mountains,
Of New Mexico.
On the last leg of the journey
They started a long time ago.
The arc of a love affair,
Rainbows in the high desert air.
Mountain passes slipping into stones;
Hearts and bones.

*Cold water lapping at alabaster skin. The salt feels different here; colder, darker and less pretentious. The ocean here is less blustery. The last time I was here, I hated it, thought it was ugly. Now I know better. This is the ocean I prefer, the one I know. You, you can have the other.*

Thinking back to the season before;
Looking back through the cracks in the door.
Two people were married;
The act was outrageous,
The bride was contagious,
She burned like a bride.
These events may have had some effect
On the man with the girl by his side.
The arc of a love affair;
His hands rolling down her hair.
Love like lightning shaking till it moans;
Hearts and bones.

*In this water my tears make no noise. You'd like that; not able to hear me and my lurid heart breaking over you. My love scares you, but I don't know why. It might be the only pure thing I've ever possessed. Pure and clean even keeping company with the demon. They play cards, you know, this queer foursome--at least when the demon, the man and the soul can get my love for you to get out from under the table. Kind of a shy type, you know. Got beaten a lot when he was a kid.*

And whoa whoa whoa
She said:
Why?
Why don't we drive through the night,
And we'll wake up down in Mexico?
Oh I
I don't know nothin' about nothin'
About Mexico.
And tell me why,
Why won't you love me
For who I am,
Where I am?
He said:
'Cause that's not the way the world is baby.
This is how I love you, baby.
This is how I love you, baby.

*So here I am, as far from you as I can get without sprouting wings. Been escorting my love for you out this way, hoping time and distance would bring it back to me, help it get over that stuttering and the tic it gets when your name is spoken. And I wish I could tell you it was working, that my love for you was getting better, would be ready to leave the hospital soon. Strike off on his own, you know.*

One and one-half wandering Jews
Return to their natural courses;
To resume old acquaintances.
Step out occasionally,
And speculate who had been damaged the most.
Easy time will determine if these consolations
Will be their reward.
The arc of a love affair,
Waiting to be restored.
You take two bodies and you twirl them into one;
Their hearts and their bones,
And they won't come undone.
Hearts and bones.

*And I love you.*

*And that is all that matters now.*