Lucia

I remember Lucia when she was younger
and her mother would be drinking every night.
We’d go out walking just to forget about our hunger
in the pale moonlight.

With no idea how to fill up all those hours
we sang songs to sing what couldn’t be spoken
and those downtown city streets were ours
till morning had broken.

Which feelings were mine and which were yours?
Who’s better, Hendrix or the Doors?
Which is the music that can soothe our sores
and which just tears them open?

I keep returning to those times with Lucia,
singing songs and trading rhymes with Lucia.
Times when the only thing that I was thinking of
was how to make her sadness fit mine like a glove –
I was such a simple boy then –
with a simple idea of how to be in love.
It was a simple idea of how to be in love.

I remember Lucia just after her wedding.
The snow was falling thick on Central Park.
She was taking her husband’s children sledding.
It was starting to get dark.

She threw her arms around me when she saw me
but in a little while there was nothing much to say,
so we walked back to the train that brought me
and we heard a radio play.

Was that a song I used to sing or one of yours?
Who is that, Hendrix or the Doors?
Is it the music that can soothe our sores
or does it just tear them open?

I keep returning to those times with Lucia,
singing songs and trading rhymes with Lucia.
Times when the only thing that I was thinking of
was how to make her sadness fit mine like a glove –
I was such a simple boy then –
with a simple idea of how to be in love.
It was a simple idea of how to be in love.

I remember Lucia just after her breakup
in a dive-bar at the end of a working week.
She was trembling as she fiddled with her makeup
and I kissed her on the cheek.

And she said, “Man, what the hell do you want from me?”
She got up to leave. She was all red in the face.
I felt this familiar feeling overcome me
I keep getting stuck in this same place.

But then a jukebox on the other side of the floor
played “Love Me Two Times,” by the Doors.
Pretty soon we were laughing and singing like before.
It is the music that can soothe our sores
though it also tears them open.

I’ll keep returning to those times with Lucia
singing songs and trading rhymes with Lucia.
And I know the only thing I’ll ever be thinking of
is how to make her sadness fit mine like a glove –
I guess I’m still a simple boy then –
with a simple idea of how to be in love.
It’s the simple way I’m meant to be in love.

Tam Lin