Loyalty

Well you called me – telephone ringing in the night
And you asked me if I was alright –
Like an afterthought, an oversight
And I stood, so surprised
Trying to hold on to my pride
So close, I could hear your low sigh
I said I was fine. You said you were fine
There’s a loneliness – I don’t lose sight of it
Like a high distant satellite
One side in shadow, one in light
But I didn’t mind to be alone that night, in a city
I’d never seen – all these skyscrapers pooling on a prairie
Built high and tall, as though they all compete
Just to reach the darkness up above
That once here had been
Somewhere – if there’s a beauty you had seen in me
That I wanted somehow to believe – drift of sentiment and memory
That I couldn’t have, I could not keep
No, it never did belong to me; it was only ever another thing I would carry
Still it held me, loyalty, to a feeling, to some glimpse
Of a love that was only ever a kind of distance
That we could not cross. “Gather no moss.”