You, there, standing in your northerly attire
It looks cold there and you’re smiling like a lover
You’re a fool for the land –
Born and bred in Michigan
Sacred Detroit, built on private transportation
Vies with lakeshore for your tenuous affection
Does a person have a chance
Against monuments and endless sand?
How you ache to go on
Like your cities and your songs –
It will always be there. It will always change
You’re not missing out on any living thing
You’ve dropped crumbs for every moment documented
Parties, house calls – you thought photos could cement them
But the birds have come at night
Making dinner of your life
How you wish to go back
To the shelter of your past
It will always be there. It will never change
You’re not missing out on any breathing thing
Do you have room in your intent
Room for one without inventions?
Room for one made from dust, as fragile as you
And as lost
Now it pains you to commute from a new region
Dear Ann Arbor took your heart in every season
Now each time you return
How it breaks again for her
How you wish to go back
To the shelter of your past
How you wish to go on
Like your cities and your songs
How you itch to go back
But the calendar’s a rat
How you ache to go on
But your love will not prolong you
How you ache to go on
But your love will not prolong you
But your love will not prolong you
But your love will not prolong you
But this love will not prolong you
Copyright © 2008, 2012 Rachel Zylstra
From Before You Could Decide, 2008
From Strings, 2012