may i steal you back from the country that took you from me?
may i place you back into the palm of my hand? and myself in yours?

may i see you tomorrow night? or the next?
may i look deeply into you and separate fact from fiction?
may i hear your stories told again and again and listen just as intently as i did the first night? (and the second and third too?)

may i take something from you that you will no longer have to give away that i can then keep for always?
siempre?

may i hold you like i used to hold the teddy bears i bought myself?
may i carry around the receipt, knowing all the time i will never return for a return?

may i sing you a night covered with stars up above crashing water and unsafe looking rocks?
be as happy as i was when you called me by name, then reissued my i.d., renaming me as "beauty"?

touch my hands to black and white keys and all of a sudden come to know the music that wells in me? become color manifest in song? make something out of nothing?
rename you mine?

see your smile and take my cue to return the favor?

may i come again
to know you
and to know you well
better and better each time the sun comes to shine over us?

if i may, then i shall

Copyright © 2006 by Arin Lawrence