Andrew Calhoun

Recall

I recall your biscuits and gravy
I recall a very wild sky
I recall a man who walked and said nothing
It was all one long goodbye

I recall your eyelashes and toothpaste
I recall an unhappy dawn
I recall a gate that was often left open
After the guests were gone

I recall your sandpaper midnight
I recall your long, billowing dream
That you let me stand up and lie down in
That you let me in between

I recall your kneecaps and notebook
I recall the still, dead lake
I recall the long seasons of rhyming time
And the front that was not fake

I recall a shower in Memphis
I recall a razor in Maine
I recall a stronger woman who sang
Till the tears fell down like rain

And it's now my tears come falling
And it's here my dreams come true
Here I am lost in my own country
With never a breath of you

With never a breath of your reasons
And never a taste of your salt
Free from that tyrant hunger
Who finds no food but fault

I am off in the wild blue yonder
Out in the prairie so wild
Up where the flowers go crazy with blooming
And dance in the mind of a child

I recall our first failure and triumph
The ceiling and hypnotized cat
I recall great and small and the rise and the fall
From longer ago that that