Red Rain

I remember last September

An enchanted month to be with you

I wondered what you’d do

If I told you I like you too much

I remember sitting on my front steps

Chatting with you late into the night

You telling me you’re starting school tomorrow

And me texting you after you’d got home

And this Summer I look back at this

I marvel at how innocent we were -

How innocent I was, how happy we’d been,

And feel a pang in my chest-

Because we can never be this happy together again

We now live in a city of gas and bullets

And enjoy a summer in smoke, a song of fire,

You fight at the front and I’m too weak to join you

Night after night I shut my eyes to the image of red tears

Streaming from your face, wishing in vain it is not real,

You screaming your name soundlessly to the cameras watching

My horror at seeing what they’d done to your beautiful face

The worst thing is that this is not killing us

The worst thing is that they’re slowly poisoning us

The worst thing is that we’ve got everything and nothing to lose;

And that I can’t tell you I still love you.

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