because i know you

I will walk a little slower
I will care a little quieter
Because I know you
Because I knew you
Because our job is over, but we will carry on

Carry on carrying these doorless weights
Objects which don't know, and cannot conceive
Lynchstones that never see what it is to leave

I knew your places and your times
Your shouts, and disagreements
I basked in your cracks and tears

(I wanted to see what you let me see,
And then just a little bit more
I wanted to stroke at your nose)

How much grander I am, because I know you
How much broader, and kinder, and wild
How spontaneity graces my fingertips

(It's not to say that I wish to drive with my thighs
To flip over competence into a wild spin
To be not nervous nor neurotic but chaotic)

You taught me how to do things for myself
How to live full through myself, and not others
How to be curious in a centrifuge's way

The power of disgust to thwart malady
What we thrust against and dismiss
What we stop and set and brace ourselves

All that passes is wrapped into us
All that flies, cotton sugar, through the waves
All --- will --- will be and happen, occasion

Obstinate opportunity: all taken, all chosen
What's done inexplicable and always, we say
We don't know what's going on with <her>

But don't we know? Aren't we learning?
I need to know. Of course we're learning
Of course we're creating what comes beyond

This most unspoken of gratitude
This most natural of impartments
This, what I mean, when I say, you

I got to know the thrill of things
I got to know the space of collapsing
I got to get into myself, ever on go

(What space, what spectrum
What habits and 'hibitions
What we all are taking for granted)

The way you filled my world
The way you painted us all a background
The way you were in, and out, and in

We wanted to see you flying, away and toward us
We loved to see you living - new shoes!
We lived to see you loving what you do

We don't wish to assume you
We never could know so well
But what we did know, a promising and limitless treasure

I will smile a little brighter
I will fly a little higher
Just a little bit
Because I know you
And I know that's what you'll do