“You dream in a language that I can’t understand. It’s like there’s this whole place inside of you where I can’t go.”

Celine Song « Past Lives (2023) »

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You’ve been dreaming in a foreign land I’ve never been,
Fumbling with words like I’ve never seen.
Lying at the wake, I’m holding your back,
But I could never tell you all the sentences I lack.

You’re so far out, inches from me now.

At the dawn, the first ray cuts our bed in half.
I’ll be gone; that’s my answer on your behalf.
Too many phrases, but none I know;
I’m alone in what we called home.

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So I voyage to a foreign sea you’d never reach,
Talk to all the strangers, drift away on the beach.
Dreaming as the sands sift through finger cracks,
Wating for the waves to take me back.

I’m so long gone, few years from you now.

At the dusk, the last ray splits us in half.
I was gone, ten thousand miles on the other half.
Too afraid to question, but now I know;
You were alone in what we called home.

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If I take a plane to the foreign land where you dreamt,
And speak in a tongue you only used when you slept,
Would I see the ghosts that you had left,
That used to hide around the corner of our bed?

I’m almost done, leave the bed lamp on.

At our home, we hoard our memories.
Always engrossed in our own reveries.
I don’t want to be just another relic.
So would you call? We don’t have to be so hectic.

At least in my sleep, you’d talk.