Sing With Me

Sleeping

“What do you when I fall asleep before you?”
“Nothing. Sometimes I just think. Sometimes I watch you sleep.”
This is like a fairy tale, I thought.
“Sometimes I talk to you.”
“Really?” I asked betraying my surprise with my tone. “What do you say to me?”
“Sometimes I tell you how I feel about you,” she said as smoothly and as automatically as if she had rehearsed the response.
I smiled then, that suppressed smile that only gets out of the corner mouth, the one my father used to give us when he was amused by our naïveté. But my smile wasn’t patronizing. It was a symptom of endearment. A warm shiver ran up my spine. Did she know that I at that moment, I knew for certain that she loved me?

Now, two weeks later I held my guitar to my chest with the hands of a mother, gently yet unmistakably protective. I never feel more vulnerable than when sharing art inspired by her with her. She is almost always the muse.
“I wrote a new song.”
“Yeah? Play it for me?”
She made herself comfortable on the carpet before me, and bathed in the soft lamplight.
“Are you sure you want to hear this?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
“No reason. Nevermind.”
So I began to play.

I only say I love you when you’re sleeping,

She smiled brightly, guiltily, so I stopped, feeling self-conscious.
“Why are you smiling?”
“No reason. I’m just smiling. I like it.”
“You do?"
“Yeah.”
With that final word, I remembered that she loves me. In my self-consciousness I had almost forgotten.
I began again.

Chorus
I only say I love you when you’re sleeping
Cuz I have never heard you say those words to me
And I only ever guess how you are feeling
By the way that you smile when you’re with me

Verse1
I asked one night do you judge me when I’m weak
You said nothing, just kissed me on my cheek
Cuz baby I can’t be without you, not for too long
Cuz it’s your proximity that keeps me strong

Chorus

Verse2
So like each night with your dreams came my confession
I said my love for you is like the space between each heart quake
But I know in the morning you won’t remember
Cuz I still can’t say these words when you’re awake.

Chorus