Thread through the flower Hand over hand Salt on the doorway Light on the sand Grandma kept a bowl by the window White plumeria cooling in rain She rolled the thread between her fingers And said, "Quick, while the stems still give" At the airport under yellow ceiling Someone laughed with a suitcase down Someone cried into somebody's shoulder With a circle of flowers turning brown I used to think it meant arriving Music at the open gate Now I know the same soft hands Can welcome you and let you go away Lei Round the leaving, round the staying Lei Words the hands know how to say Love is not the flower Love is tying it anyway A circle for the ones we cannot make stay There was one across a cap and gown One beside a hospital bed One on a photo near the candle Where nobody touched the bread Petals caught on Sunday clothing Thread pulled loose beside the door Every necklace became a question Who was home, and who was not anymore I used to count the open arms I used to miss the closing hands Now I keep the needle moving Through the small bright proof we had Lei Round the leaving, round the staying Lei Words the hands know how to say Love is not the flower Love is tying it anyway A circle for the ones we cannot make stay Flowers brown by morning Thread remembers weight Petals fall into the saucer Still the circle keeps its shape I cannot stop the boarding call Or make the bedside clock unwind So I tie what my hands can carry Around what I must leave behind Lei Round the leaving, round the staying Lei Words the hands know how to say Love is not the flower Love is tying it anyway A circle for the ones we cannot make stay Lei For the child at the doorway For the elder in the frame For the boarding gate at sunrise For the chair that keeps a name A circle for the love that does not go away Thread through the flower Hand over hand Morning will take it Love understands
