HowManyTimesShouldICryForYou

You warned me with a smiling mouth

I heard the smile not the sound

I held your love like borrowed light

then let it fall without a crown

I wore a truth I wouldn’t show

an old ache passing for something new

I chased the proof of what I knew

and made the weather fall on you

How many times should I cry for you

How many tears come due

You carried what I buried from view

now every drop is owed to you

How many times should I cry for you

Till sorry sounds like true

I gave you half a heart to hold

and called it love when I knew

Your hands were home my pulse was gone

I wore the night behind my eyes

You asked for all the living parts

I brought a ghost in a good disguise

No bitter case no pretty plea

no holy reason I can use

Some debts don’t die when love is done

they learn to sing in someone’s shoes

How many times should I cry for you

How many tears come due

You carried what I buried from view

now every drop is owed to you

How many times should I cry for you

Till sorry sounds like true

I gave you half a heart to hold

and called it love when I knew

I can’t buy back the softer years

I can’t undo what brought us here

I keep your name behind my teeth

then hear it breathe through hidden grief

How many times should I cry for you

What can a late heart do

I have no gift good enough —

only regret returning blue