you’ve been here before
i’ve been here, too
here in the waste
here in the wound

where air is as ash
and ash is as fire
and all who can breathe
are lame with desire

whenever we’ve met in this place
i’ve endured it
always survived
the loves that you’ve murdered

but what is this now?
this new face you wear?
this new inclination?
this new body you bare?

new man leans back from the future
stories of his body he whispers
a body in love and in pain
a body in light and in mystery

what is this new face?
what are these new demands?
i curl into a ball
you rip me open with your hands

your touch says it all
i’m to be open and broken
hold it all together
on a promise unspoken

let the contradiction break me
open and down and apart
and what is impossible now
soon enough will start

but the uncertainty of the future
and the certainty of my longing
how can i hold it all?
except in a song i sing

new man leans back from the future
stories of his body he whispers
a body in love and in pain
a body in light and in mystery

in the end
i will be a new man
myself, only more so
more the person, less the pain

he’ll be able to love her
when she is ready and receptive
and let her go when she needs
that space and perspective

some say new man
will let her go completely
make peace with her absence
but that’s not what he tells me

new man leans back from the future
stories of his body he whispers
a body in love and in pain
a body in light and in mystery
a body entwined
in hers
a body embodied
in a chorus and verse