Hear What Love Sounds Like

“And I'd take the flat above the takeaway Over any house that we could name. Four years in and I still know your footsteps Coming up the stairs before you say my name...”

“I'm not going to write you a poem, You'd only laugh at me and put the kettle on. But I'd like it on the record, love — Twelve years, and I've got no complaints...”

“Twenty-seven winters, And you're still the first one up, Still scraping the ice off my side of the windscreen Before you ever do your own...”

“Six o'clock and the kettle finds its noise, Two cups on the bench, one sugar and one without. Forty-six years of that same small sound, And I have never got tired of it once...”

“We were pulling weeds for minimum wage, Summer heat and dirt and not a cent to spare, You were laughing at the roses in the shade, And I was already gone, just standing there.”

“It started with a fight over bad machine brew You grabbed that paper cup and I said, hey, that's mine too We split it down the middle, lukewarm, awful, fine That last vending machine coffee, Jessie, yours and mine”

“I remember sitting shotgun, hands on the wheel You said, "Steady now, baby, just learn how to feel" Every lesson you gave me went deeper than roads You were quietly building the woman I'd become to hold”

“We raised three kids on a dirt road, wild and unafraid You held this family together when the bank came and the rain stayed We buried your daddy on a cold November hill And you never broke, you bent like water bending to its will”

“You came to us three weeks before we thought you'd be here Small and brand new, breathing soft against the quiet I sat beside you in the dark on that first night home Watching your chest rise and fall by the nightlight”

“You clocked off every night with aching hands Stacked those shelves so you could chase a plan No one in your family walked this road But you picked up every piece and carried the load”

“I used to count the hours till your voice came through the phone Three years of empty pillows and a bed that felt like stone You were finishing your degree across a hundred miles of sky And every night I'd hold my breath just waiting on that line”

“The morning light falls soft across the floor, And something's simmering, just like before, Your hands, they move like you were born to this, A pinch of salt, a stir, a gentle hiss.”

“Sunlight comes slow through the curtains we drew, Coffee gone warm on the table for two, Your feet in my lap and old Sinatra spins low, Eleanor, honey, there's nowhere to go.”

“Twelve years of Sunday markets, you and me Browsing through the stalls like we had all the time we'd need Your laugh above the crowd, your terrible sense of north Three-point turns that turned to seven, neither of us keeping score”

“You stretched a nurse's wage across four hungry mouths Pulled double shifts and never let us see your doubt I don't recall you ever saying life was hard Just quiet strength and supper on, and you standing guard”

“It's four in the morning, I've got seventeen thoughts About nothing that matters and some that do not And you're half-asleep but you're nodding along Like my chaos is something worth building a home from”

“I've been turning this over in my mind for a while now, Trying to find the right words, the right key, the right style now, Because some debts run deeper than a man ever says out loud, And you, Reggie, you've been carrying mine through every cloud.”

“We were feral in the backyard, no shoes, no rules Built a blanket fort kingdom, thought we owned the world Every broken lamp, I blamed on you You blamed it back before the sentence was through”

“I remember the draft through the window frame The smell of fried onions and a landlord we blamed One bedroom, damp walls, and a leaking pipe But you made me laugh till two in the morning light”

“You never were a man who leaned on speeches Just rough hands and a quiet, steady way You handed me a rod out on that water And taught me more than school could in a day”

“We were eleven with our whole world ahead Already causing trouble, already underfed On each other's laughter and our half-baked plans Choreographed dances nobody asked for, but here we stand”

“You were seventeen and learning how to hold the world Your mum needed you and you answered every call You were up before the sunrise, last to close your eyes You raised your brothers up and never let them fall”

“I remember laying you down to sleep That little glow beside you keeping back the dark You'd reach for my hand and I'd stay till you were still Thinking, how does something small hold so much heart”

“You walked in the room and I lost my words again Six years and still my whole train of thought just bends No special occasion, no candles I rehearsed Just me sitting quiet, feeling it like the first”

“Remember that coffee shop, just you and me Two strangers with a spark, too blind to see”

“You sneeze like a cartoon character Some tiny hiccup of sound that shouldn't exist”

“That was the moment I knew, Before the ring, before the room, before the aisle. Somewhere between your second drink And your first real smile...”

“Barefoot on the grass behind your mother's place, You fixed my collar, I forgot my face. There's a marquee full of people we love, And I can't see a single one...”

“Every night I watch my phone light up And there you are, smiling back at me”

“Remember that day on the street, baby, when our worlds collided? Window shopping at the mall, didn't know where this ride went”

“Long before the aisle and the borrowed pearls, It was midnight radio and a linoleum world. We've been dancing at this wedding for years, Tonight we just invited everyone...”

“I'm not good with words in front of a crowd, So I wrote them down and said them out loud. Everything I promised in that little room, I'll keep promising to you...”

“Woke up this morning with the sun comin' through Coffee brewing, and I'm thinking 'bout you”

“Lawrence came home from the mine every night Dust on his boots, but his eyes were still bright”