chasing me

you have never stopped chasing me

during the summers that I ignored you

you came through the radio and reminded me

when I didn't know how to fully worship you,

you whispered again at me with the same strain,

the same chords pushing steel into my tender fingertips

when I asked to truly love you

you showed me you had never stopped

that you were there, always

in my mind you work

like flowers long since pressed inside the pages

you opened up the song to me, showed me how

I felt the sun, smelled the summer of running

and the navigated fretboards uncertain twang

again and again You have chased me

I want to remember how you work

how you show me that you’ve never left but

you use much finer things than earthly words can quote

you use the delicacies of memory

the caviar of my sights and sounds and smells

you use my fingerprints and my roadside distractions

you open up yourself to me

and you work like the silver threads that run through tapestries and clouds

you have never stopped chasing me

g.c.s