If you would let me hold you I could breathe
Your purple hair, the flakes of makeup breaking
From your boiling eyes. You’d see how much you need
Cool words. Outside the door I’ve heard you seethe
Through years of trouble. I’d press away the shaking
If you would let me hold you. I could breathe
The atoms of your dreams, my face so close I’d eat
Your anguish, taste the tang of black tears leaking
From your locked-down eyes. You’d see how much you need
To forgive, to be forgiven, to reach and cleave
To something incorruptible and unforsaken.
If you would let me hold you I could breathe
Away your brinks, lay cushions underneath
Your cliffs. I’d let no shiv of light be taken
From your arctic eyes, you’d see. How much you need!
Is there no salve, no balm in Gilead
To breach the brick and thistle of your hatred?
If you would let me hold you I could breathe.
Your broken eyes would see how much you need me.