When you and I were together, we rarely made a sound.
We didn’t like it when others were around.
We went into the quiet car and quietly held hands.
We knew touch goes beyond what thought understands.
Understanding dies every time a sound is made,
Unless it’s music, sinking into a darkening shade
Like this aching verse, sinking, so it almost makes us afraid,
So pleasant the visit and the touch
Of our hands, that we don’t notice the noises of the train that much.
When drunk and loud passengers annoy you,
You curse them excitedly and I ask you
To lower your voice so the drunks can’t hear.
They might hear, and though I laughed, it was a genuine fear
Because you were quietly mine, not meant to mingle or fight,
Especially trapped in a train car late at night.
My arm around you was quiet, and quiet my hand,
Which played with yours, and, when I kissed you,
That was quiet, too;
Good, therefore, in a way that was easy to understand.
We sank into kissing in the quiet car
Until my stop. And then we remembered who we were.
No. We remembered who we were not.
We got off at different stations. Character. Plot.
We each went home to a different star.
But we won’t forget the quiet of the quiet car.
In the quiet car you have to be quiet, it is true,
But now, in the middle of the kissing, I have something to say to you.
