I hate to keep writing about dreams I've had of you
contemptable redundancy if it only wasn't true
it's sad enough I only live you in my sleep
I pray you,constant stranger, my memory to keep.

Oh, my precious jewel, I had less than a moment to memorize your face
but I knew you from the inside out - your words, your laugh, your grace
and I knew your desperate fear, that's one thing time cannot erase.
In this most recent reverie, you knocked at my back door
Your voice was thin & urgent, it seemed talking was a chore
then I remembered silence comes to you as flight does to a hawk
I wanted to tell you I still love you, it came out
"call if you ever need to talk."

Oh, my precious jewel, I had less than a moment to memorize your face
but I knew you from the inside out - your words, your laugh, your grace
and I knew your desperate fear, that's one thing time cannot erase.

And so, my precious jewel
oh that title would make me queasy if it wasn't your real name
if I'm lucky I'll find another who will love me through my pain
and I'll have another moment, maybe millions, maybe more
where I'll wake up out of dreamland & know who I'm breathing for.

I wish that there was more to write of you than dreams
I'd hoped to sing of secrets & of collarbones & screams
but your church would not allow that revolutionary noise
your family wouldn't like you eating of a fruit that's for the boys
and you yourself could not accept your own emergence to the light
so I guess I'll see you when I close my eyes, oh precious jewel
oh my precious jewel, goodnight.

I only had a moment... less than a moment

copyright Arjuna Greist 1999