The D Word
After a night of hard honesty, she said the word neither of us wanted to hear. She was panicked, and in a panic everything looks like all or nothing. Writing this one was how I faced it instead of running from it.
The air was thick, the lines were drawn
The quiet after a brand new, painful dawn
Of honesty had left us bare
Two fighters gasping for the air
You looked at me with frightened eyes
And from your lips, a sharp surprise
A single word to end the pain
Like acid in a summer rain
Was it damnation? Was it dread?
The hundred awful things you've said
In nightmares that you have at night?
Was it delusion? Was I right?
Was it disaster? Was it doom?
That echoed in our quiet room?
No, it was just that simple word
The ugliest I've ever heard
An icy hand, a sudden squeeze
A hurricane that stills the breeze
The sound of a foundation crack
A gut-punch you can't take back
I stood there in the sudden chill
A king upon a barren hill
A captain on his sinking ship
With just that poison on your lip
Was it damnation? Was it dread?
The hundred awful things you've said
In nightmares that you have at night?
Was it delusion? Was I right?
Was it disaster? Was it doom?
That echoed in our quiet room?
No, it was just that simple word
The ugliest I've ever heard
But I'm the man who knows the score
I know the ghosts of your own war
I know the fear behind the blade
The panicked, awful choice you made
It's not a wound that I'll forget
But it's not a war worth fighting yet
'Cause what's one word, when all is said
To seventeen years in our bed?
So let's not speak of doom or dread
Let's talk about our life instead
It was just one single, ugly word
And now it's funny, and absurd
I choose you. The D word's dead!
Let's go to bed