July, a third-floor walk-up, ninety-four degrees The whole block went black at a quarter after three You dug through every drawer for something to light Found six birthday candles, matches, and a deck without a queen We played cards by the window with the screens wide open A radio downstairs was crackling a ball game in the street You let me win, I caught you, you were bad at hiding And I memorized your laugh like it was something I would need I didn't have a word for it Didn't tell my mother, didn't tell my friends It was just candles burning down to nothing I didn't know that's how the good part begins 'Cause the whole city went dark And that's when I saw you Every light on the avenue Gone, but I found you Six birthday candles and your hand by mine I didn't know I was falling I just hoped the lights would take their time September, you kept "getting lost" driving me home October, you knew my order, oat milk, two sugars, no foam November, your mother set a place for me at dinner December, I stopped pretending that I wanted to be alone Now everybody asks me when I knew Like it's a headline, like it's one big scene I tell them it was slow and then all at once But really it was candles and a missing queen I didn't have a word for it Didn't need a ring, didn't need a sign It was just candles burning down to nothing I didn't know that they would light the rest of my life 'Cause the whole city went dark And that's when I saw you Every light on the avenue Gone, but I found you Six birthday candles and your hand by mine I didn't know I was falling I just hoped the lights would take their time Now there's flour on the counter and some crayon on the wall And a calendar of soccer games and dentist calls And you still lose at cards and I still catch you every time And some nights I look at you and I'm right back in July And if I could find that girl by the window in the heat With the matches in her hand and the wax on her sleeve I'd lean in close and tell her, "Honey, don't you blow them out 'Cause the dark is where you find him, and he's gonna stick around" Last night the power went out again And the whole house went dark And there you were, still you Same old deck, still missing a queen Still letting me win, still bad at it too Six birthday candles and your hand in mine Ten years later, still falling And I still hope the lights take. their time (take their time) Quarter after three Ninety-four degrees I didn't know it then But I know it now
