Japanese Paper Moon

I lie here in a strange embrace:
a girl curled round me like a snake.
Stars and sweat light up her face
and the whole world seems cold and fake.
But it’s a world I live in for your sake.

And your Japanese paper moon
still shines in a corner of my room.
And the light it casts seems to say:
that all love is true love
if you look at love the right way.

Time has made a good wife out of you.
I’m glad you're better with clipped wings.
But when you said we did wrong that isn’t true.
You can’t plan for what the new day brings.
You can’t make your heart feel only some things.

And your Japanese paper moon
still shines in a corner of my room.
And the light it casts seems to say:
that all love is true love
if you look at love the right way.

But I remember your face
when you first came to my place,
with its single bed and couple of broken shelves.
And you hung up that paper light
and you held me all night.
But I saw that the shadows we cast were longer than ourselves.

I lie here in a strange embrace,
waiting till the sunlight breaks.
New shadows fill this familiar place,
and I see that there are no mistakes.
Like this girl, smiling, as she awakes.

Like your Japanese paper moon,
that shines in a corner of my room.
And the light it casts seems to say:
that all love is true love
if you look at love the right way.

Tam Lin