It's easy to hurt people -
too easy to get hurt
I can tell by your silence
there's something wrong
like all the silences before
a cavalcade of faces
telephone numbers whited out
in a lineage of personal directories
like a needle dragged across a record
their pages filled with muffled anecdotes
- the sound of a stereo
when heard through a closed door

And now there's you
another face - another number
guilty paranoia filtering in
with its own brand of larceny
what have I done? - asking myself
like the repeat mechanism of a turntable
déja vu filling unremovable headphones

Only one possibility reaching full volume
both a friend and an enemy who will never leave
ensuring this artist's survival
but at such cost
if there were choice - I would not pay
refuse to play this endless symphony of words

You've merely confirmed in your own artistic way
what I knew all along
having given me your victories and defeats
an album full of love songs
but as too often before
the needle has reached the final groove
and though I can play the record over -
countless times
it will never be the same
as when I first recorded it with you

© 1992

680 hits as of February 2024

01/26/2017

Posted on 01/26/2017
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti