It was always a marriage
From the moment that you stepped into my hallway
Shy as anyone I'd ever known
You choose what to believe in
In this flippant time, there's no real reason not to
We wrote letters to each other
As though addressing the ocean that we stand before now
You in my old cardigan and I in your blue jeans
And the light turned golden on the distant headlands and the ocean
And you and I on the other side of the world
Love, it is no mystery, it never has been
No, not to me
I love because I see

But we never got better
We never got to talking
We never figured out the questions
We got good at walking
Walking the streets
When it was too hot to eat
Walking in step
We can't help it

You remember in June
You showed up one day with a small leather suitcase
Swaying your walk and you stayed on with me
Late into the evening into all the years
That have passed on since then
With no certainty, no agreement
More intimate than I could imagine
But with space, I cannot fathom
Like a song with so much silence
Or just like you in your defiance
You say you never questioned anything
You say you knew from the beginning

I ask for your hand in it
Some infinite understanding
But I don't know nothing of what I'm asking
I've no idea of what it will entail
I asked for your hand
Like it was too intimate to ask for your mind
Or to count on kindness
Like I count on your presence
Like I don't count on nothing else

Oh, it was always a marriage
From the moment that you stepped into my hallway
Shy as anyone I'd ever known
Curious and alone