I like this one very much, but I feel like I managed to get a big fish on the line, and the difficulty is going to be in landing it properly.
The idea for this came bubbling up for a memory of one of the most heartbreaking stories I think I've ever read. A husband, whose wife was suffering from Alzheimer's, had had to put her in a care home. He came to visit every day, and did everything he could to keep her mind and memory stimulated. He began to notice that, as her memory of him and what he meant to her was diminishing, she had struck up a friendship with a male patient, and it was growing in intimacy. He spoke with her and with her doctors at great length and eventually came to understand that the best thing he could do for his wife was to let her go on that journey without him. That his presence was just becoming more and more confusing and frustrating to her.
Finding a way to adapt this story and keeping it from becoming too maudlin is the obvious challenge. My first instinct, as usual, was to obscure the details and to keep it vague enough that a listener could appreciate it on various levels, but that the real payday would come when the true subject matter was understood. I think this is the right way to go, but I don't think I'm there yet. I'm not sure I've revealed enough for a listener to be able to suss out the story line, and I'm not sure I like the elevated language, without any hint of humor or groundedness. In the second draft, I hope to move more in that direction.
lyrics
do you remember what you said
when you set the world aglow
you said, "this love is like a thread
our hands together sew,"
and I won’t forget
do you remember when we met
you, smiling, so surprised
as though you’d won a long-shot bet
and just now realized
your time had come
I was holding your hand and
you were holding my heart
I was scared it would end
and you were scared to start
scared to speak your heart
and now I look in your eyes
and you look just the same
you’re every bit as surprised
that you don’t know my name
and I forgot to let you go
sweet calico
do you remember when we kissed
the sky was full of stars
and I would lose my life for this
these moments, only ours
and I won’t forget
will you remember me tonight
shall we let the dance begin
can I hope to shine a light
and make you fall again
your time has come
I was holding your hand and
you were holding my heart
I was scared it would end
and you were scared to start
scared to speak your heart
and now I look in your eyes
and you look just the same
you’re every bit as surprised
that you don’t know my name
and I forgot to let you go
sweet calico
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