Before we hand you over to the hospital
I dream I hold you in my arms
On the schoolroom steps
Romeo and Juliet
My star-crossed sister, brother in my blood

You may return and yet we’re losing you
Not sure I ever learned to pray
So tell me, my friend
What you say in the end
Words beyond the fire and the flood

You say, “Tell me the story
Sing me a love song
Up from the valley
Down in your soul
Bring out the bottle
Pour me another
Pass me around now
And sing me to sleep

I remember all the songs you sang to me
Before the night you went away
Of the Eastern Shore
The saint of Salvador
And clippers on the Chesapeake Bay

Somebody help me find the melody
This fragile memory of friends
I’ll sing with you
If you sing with me, too
Before the evening falls, we’ll find a way

One by one, the leaves are coming down
Side by side, we watch them fall
And the leaves on the trees
Are healing you and me
Showing us the way to what’s to come

Tell me the story
Sing me a love song
Up from the valley
Down in your soul
Bring out the bottle
Pour me another
Pass me around now
And sing me to sleep

(January 2016)