With her hands up to the ceiling and her parents out of town

With a red solo cup brimming like she'd only heard about

From the smoke cloud disappearing like the borders of her mood

She is learning there are no rules

With his hands clapping the keyboard like two teams after a game

He's resigned himself to safety, says his family is to blame

Until an email about cutbacks on a Thursday afternoon

Lays it on him, there are no rules

With her hands wringing the silence around her new hospital bed

She can stoop beneath the morphine

When she hears her daughter's breath

Until a nurse intending comfort like a long and winding fuse

Lays it on her, there are no rules

With his hands against the body of a man he's come to like

At least a decade in the making, at least he finally changed his mind

And as the line is crossed for certain and the curtain's torn in two

He is learning there are no rules

Like a car at age eleven or time-out at twenty-five

Lady Wisdom came too early or too late, I can't decide

Did I miss a step behind me, is the next just out of view

I am learning that there are no rules