I can't hear you
You're too far away
The coast of the Emirates appeared to me an alien world of extremes. The desert's dark expanse and the spires' bright light. And nothing in between.
The light is in my face
The barrenness of the sand and the impossibility of the glowing glass and steel. Human over nature. Something from nothing.
I can't love you
how you want me to
I thought of her across the world. I didn't know then the pain and the guilt, but I felt it in the distance between us.
I can't love you
how you want me to
I thought of the years to come. When the plane landed in Dubai, I felt the weight of my future selves, all present in that same cramped seat. I anticipated each departure-tinged arrival. They washed over me in waves.
But you want what
I can't give to you
In reality, it was a city I would never come to possess.
On the flight, a fragment of song had returned to me again and again, half remembered from some friend's car
I can't love you
how you want me to
It came to me as if in a dream. I found it when the plane landed. "Bite the Hand."
Half awake, I stared at the unknown through the bus window. The shore seemed dark, impossibly so. I tried to imagine that beyond the tall streetlights and the highway guardrail, the world ended.
Who do you think you are?
Who do you think I am?
What do you wanna say?
What do you think will change?
Maybe I'm afraid of you
Maybe I'm afraid of you
Last night I drove home from their apartment. It's almost impossible to tell when things begin to end.
Bite the hand
It streamed out of my car windows which I refused to roll up, even as the winds battered my face and hair. I sped along the shore, then across. And for the first time, I smelled the river.
Bite the hand
I can't love you
how you want me to
I can't love you
how you want me to