Bruce Donnola: Music

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Greybeard
(Let Down Your Hair)

I stepped off a Greyhound two miles from the old town
And walked all the rest of the way.
That string of used car lots and old auto-body shops
Unchanged since way back in the day.

So long ago,
I’ve been so long away.

The asphalt and gravel and broken glass under my shoes
Had that same bleak perfume.
I turned up the street you and I used to walk
Till we’d reach the sweet smell of your room.

Your amber and red beaded curtains gave way to a universe
Bright to behold;
The brand new sensation of love and the tide force of lust
Burned as hot as white gold.

Throw open the door,
Come stand in the light
And let down your hair.

One kept close to the hearth
And the other went off to the mountains of morrow.

I feel my heart beat slightly faster the way that it did
When I’d walk up your drive;
I’ve spent all these years trying to find just one moment
To feel as intensely alive.

Those late afternoons we spent searching and trembling
There on your bed all alone:
I swear I still know every inch of your body
Far better than I know my own.

Throw open the door,
Come stand in the light
And let down your hair.

One made a story quilt,
Years spent sewing chapters together:
Loves made out of silk and thread,
Till the one she began it with came back to find her.

Now I walk up the steps to your porch and I stand at your door
Scared and tangled inside;
The grey in my beard and the slight paunch I’ve gained,
Lines of age that cannot be denied.
And you’ll check your own changes sadly,
The weight of time’s gravity leaves you unsure.
But look, I am always your boy
And I’ll still see the beauty that you always were.

Throw open the door,
Come stand in the light
And let down your hair.