Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander - Over the Rhine

You are a gardener

You cultivate my soul

You water thirsty vines

That snake along my spine

In case I forget to shiver

You are a carpenter

You build the scaffolding

Replace the windowpane

I see the sky again

As if I’ve been delivered

You are a fisherman

My weather lets you know

When and when not to wait

Your hook’s inside the bait

I’m wary but I swallow

You are a messenger

You bring me all the news

The kind that never lies

It’s written in my eyes

You beckon and it follows

I get to be guilty

You are a singer too

Carry me like a tune

I’m like a newborn child

I’m wrapped up for a while

You’re swaying like a hobo

You are a circus clown

I’ve never laughed before

Beneath your canopy

Oh say a prayer for me

I want this in a photo

So be a photographer

I’m dancing naked now

Across the maple floor

Above the lion’s roar

Your pictures will protect me

You must be a scientist by now

With rumpled midnight hair

You’ve studied every pore

And every follicle

Of my bewildered body

I get to be guilty

Yours is a different light

I like my face that way

The canvas of my skin

Serene and strange but true