Honest

Said I’d walk to San Francisco
After everything was done
Thought the noise and moving busy
Kept my mind from really knowing what was gone
And when I finally saw it closing
All those miles across the bay
I was only standing closer to
The man I hoped to lose along the way

But if I’m being honest
But if I’m being honest
I would tell them

It’s a children's book
It’s a hospital gown
It’s an aspen tree in the summer breeze
She saw, as waving hands
It’s a watching chair
And a holy company
Like a sailing ship
Hard wrought in it
That will never again float upon the sea

I found that there’s a humor
In an old and fond goodbye
As if the early passing was a door
That she could look through with a smile

So if I’m being honest
If I’m being honest
I would tell her

It’s a pair of jeans
It’s a rude awakening
It’s a fine life lived in the privilege of standing there in the afterlight
It’s a photograph
Folded in my wallet
To remind myself that what she left
Is only growing bigger over time