Blessed in bold, Flora in gray

Treasured in letters and aftershave

A curious clock and a sleepwalking memory

The one with the teeth, the one with the thread,

the one with psalms and the proverbs and God help me

yours strikes the chords I have heard once before, now I'm listening

I know you a dreamer

I know you were brave

but forever defined by what you've left behind Oh my oh my oh Madeline

The waters had risen, the hunger grew mean

to leave, to break free, to see other things

They said, in New York, there's a sixty story portal to the sky

Hawthorne and Melville and Song of Myself

oh how those words did settle and melt

sinking in thinning skin of the suitcase you packed all those years ago

I know you a thinker

I know you were awake

but forever defined by what you've left behind Oh my oh my oh Madeline

I guess you could say it was one of those days and I had been feeling my mortality,

like what will be left and am I alright with that

You entered my brain by number, not name

and case at the start, but I knew it by heart

and I couldn't shake your face out of my thoughts, it was hauntingly sharp

I know you resisted

I know were strong

but forever defined by what you've left behind Oh my oh my oh Madeline