How He Entered

This is how he entered, how he came in
With an open heart and his eyes wide
A rubber in his pocket
With odd socks and a skip in his step
In an ill-fitting suit with something up his sleeve
A sliver of a dream, a last chance
And the fear in his eyes of how dear it was held

This is how he entered, how he came in
Falling from the back of a transit van, crumpled
Desperate for relief from the humdrum
Each step a story, a song in the making
Each step cemented the leaving
The broken hearts left behind
They were just material to him
And how they would come to pursue him
How they would eventually come to drag him back there

This is how he entered, how he came in
With his hair combed, he stood in the doorway
Like a lost dog holding his missing poster
Just to be sure, to be sure everyone knew just how lost he was
Telling his stories, he broke onions and sang his songs
‘The street walker's carol’, ‘Soft tissue’
'The fear of emptiness'
'Planting holes to grow some longing’
These were his songs and this was how he came in

This was how he entered, how he came in
With chips in his pocket
Just waiting for a chance to get into the game
With his hair combed and the checks on his shirt just right
He sang of it, but knew nothing of it
A house of cards by an open window
A bag of fragments, an unsolvable puzzle
He knew nothing of what you needed from him
He knew nothing of giving
He only knew of his desires
He only knew of that moment
This is how he entered, this is how he came in
This is how he entered, how he came in