A Narrow Way

by Nick Jaina

I saw a car that looked just like your car
except its features were rusted and scarred
as though it had been pulled from the bottom of a lake
and now I take
like the devil takes
and now I lie
like the devil lies
but I don't feel
like the devil feels

and the pictures that you have on your wall
form a sentence in the infinite scrawl
as though they were around when the sea was just a drop
now I don't stop
cause the devil doesn't stop
and I don't cry
because the devil doesn't cry
but I don't feel
how the devil feels

and gravediggers know that the heart of a man
could never be placed in the soil of the arid land
of Detroit
oh Detroit
the heart is something poets named
to explain the chemicals in our brains

and I never missed the water until the well went dry
I never missed your voice until I heard it on the radio crying,
"Detroit
Detroit"
you sang of the Great Lakes as blue and grey
as the band began to play

and it is a narrow way
it is a narrow way
it is a narrow way

now I hang like the devil hangs
now I heel like the devil heels
but I don't feel how I think the devil would feel

ten million kisses on a statue leave a dent
every pair of lips takes away a piece of sediment
and it is slow, it is slow
but it means so much more to me
than all the words you said when we were in love

© 2008 Nick Jaina