Hymn For A Hollow Heart

You came like a rumor under streetlamps and rain A thin silhouette that begged the cold to stay I kept a small bible on the table—empty prayers inside— And learned to read your name between the lines You smoked from someone else’s grief and smiled like a saint While I practiced being faithful to the shape of a complaint Sing to me, my love, in the voice of knives and wine Call me by the fragile name I hide beneath my mind We were two cheap apostles with a single silver chart Tracing the lost coordinates of a hollow heart There’s a church at the corner Where the pigeons trade their sins Prayers folded into pockets where the daylight thins You gave me your last coin and the hush of an old refrain Said love is a ledger, and we are both in the same I kept the change, I kept the wound, I kept a promise that was small Like a candle lit for no one in a cathedral made of wall Sing to me, my love, in the voice of knives and wine Call me by the fragile name I hide beneath my mind We were two cheap apostles with a single silver chart Tracing the lost coordinates of a hollow heart I have worn your absence like a ring upon my thumb Counted all the times I loved you and the ways I let you come There are maps in my pockets, and the ink won't fade away— It spells repentance and the places where we used to pray If bargaining is mercy, then take this little debt I’ll trade my last confession for the mercy I forget When morning bleeds through curtains And the city sighs and wakes I fold the night into my pockets like a rusted set of stakes Your voice is still a lantern on the stair that leads to grief And I keep climbing anyway, for the sake of disbelief You teach me how to hunger for a taste that will not last And I remember every future as a memory of the past Sing to me, my love, in the voice of knives and wine Call me by the fragile name I hide beneath my mind We were two cheap apostles with a single silver chart Tracing the lost coordinates of a hollow heart Track from the album "Sin Parade", dedicated to Leonard Cohen