There were things in my pockets Too heavy Too small A key with no lock A number A name A photograph Folded white at the edge Keep it No Leave it The road won’t carry everything The road never promised I had a coat full of winters A mouth full of old smoke A hand full of apologies That never learned to open I carried the sound Of one slammed door Then another Then another Until every room Had the same weather We couldn’t carry Everything Some things were meant To fall behind Some things were never ours Some things only borrowed time We couldn’t carry Everything So let it go No ceremony No little speech Just Open your hand There See? Still alive There was a blue cup Cracked near the handle A train ticket Half a letter A smell Like rain on concrete Don’t know why That one hurts Doesn’t matter It does Doesn’t matter It does I packed the anger Between two shirts Packed the shame Under the shoes Packed every version Of what should have happened Packed the people I couldn’t lose Then the suitcase broke Good Let it spill Look at all that Names Faces Weather Dust A red string A broken watch Three words I still won’t say We couldn’t carry Everything Some things were meant To fall behind Some things were never ours Some things only borrowed time We couldn’t carry Everything So let it go Not because it meant nothing Because it did Too much There’s a difference Out beyond the houses A wire hums Against the evening One bird lifts Then disappears The sky keeps opening Without asking us For permission That used to frighten me Maybe it still does A little I thought memory Was proof It isn’t It’s weather It changes shape While you stand in it You can love a thing And still leave it You can leave a thing And still hear it Years later In a room It never entered That’s the trick That’s the curse That’s the beautiful part Maybe We couldn’t carry Everything Some things were meant To fall behind Some things were never ours Some things only borrowed time We couldn’t carry Everything So leave the stone Leave the key Leave the old little courtroom Inside of me Leave the debt Leave the score Leave the footsteps Outside the door Leave the face I wore for war I don’t need it Not anymore And now Nothing dramatic Just less weight That’s all Less weight The road looks different When your hands are empty The sky looks bigger Maybe it always was There’s one last thing I almost kept Your voice No Not your voice The space After it That stays That can come It weighs nothing So I carry that.
