Map of a City

I woke up
The snow was down
You were out
Because you didn’t want to let me in

You had a lunch in a cafe
While I was still in bed
You had tea mid-afternoon
I had you in my head

[chorus]
You and I trace a map of this city
with our parallel footsteps
and an emptiness in the middle
where our parallel hopes are kept

I woke up in the East End
Last night on my breath
you woke up still downtown
with nothing of you left

I drove back on the Outer Ring
When you were walking home
My tired eyes and a steering wheel
Your footsteps on their own

[chorus]

Stuck inside the afternoon
but you’d lie down if you
still live your life so fast

Where once I’d chart a course
I now stumble through the streets
without you as my compass

I woke up
feeling down and out
in the end
you wonder where it all begins
[chorus]

Walk these lines engraved in pavement
Watch the dawning of the day
Before, when I would trace your body
just half a room away