She Sang to Me a Language Strange

She sang to me a language strange

Her melodic voice scratching at my ears

Leaking notes and hymns

Where they bled

And bled a river more

Until I began to understand

The reason why she breathed

He wrote to me a letter strange

Where every symbol was written backwards

And upside down

The vanilla paper splattered with angry ink

And the edges worn by weary hands

And I began to understand

The reason why he told stories

They painted me a person strange

Where every shadow, crevice and surface flaw

Was rendered for all to see

Upon a fake white background

Of cardboard

And I began to understand

The reason why they preferred color

You acted out a scene so strange

That I thought to myself

How can you be so completely lost in your art

So full of sound, word and color

And yet be so disconnected from what makes it?

And finally I began to understand

The reason why you were an actor