Notebook

What happened to you?
You used to give me your undivided attention
What happened to us?
We used to be the best of friends
Remember how many nights we spent awake together?
You used to fill my empty pages with everything you had

You didn't have to vow
No other tongue had ever tasted the salt of those tears
You kept hidden from the world
You didn't have to to swear
No other soul had ever heard such hushed tones from your lips
I knew it from the way your breath quivered
When longing and sorrow molded your entire body into a flute
And you translated the winds of separation
Into a song of blood and fire

Remember how we'd maintain those sacred flames
With tear stained page after tear stained page?
We burnt down the temple and built a cage from its ashes
But we were free in our fortress of solitude

There were silences between us that came alive by night
And words which never saw the light of day
But they were ours because they didn't owe a damn thing to anyone

I remember every word you etched on my body
Every space you left unwritten
Each line you crossed out
Each corner you folded
Every exclamation and question mark
Every curse and prayer

Because god damn it
I am the conscience of that first notebook
You picked up and wrote it
Not for the sake of the score or the stage
But for the sake of yourself

Tell me, what freedom were you seeking?
Tell me, what did love ask of you
When you first mixed your tears
With the ink of your pen?

What sacred flame compelled you to write
When there was no mic, no audience
And no judge besides the truth in your own heart?

Remember that
Give it your undivided attention again
Because if you're still preoccupied
With what others might think about your words
How in the hell are you going to tell the world
That which you were born to say?