Necessary Sonnet - Rick Barry

We were a song

And our love was the instrument

Every bad melody

Was one more experiment

In heartbreak and loss

All at the cost

Of a self fulfilled prophecy

For lovers, star-crossed

We were an army of two

And then you turned your coat in

And became a traitor

To your every conviction

Now you speak of flying out

Like a drunken acrobat

Swinging from lover to lover

Without a net

But me, I’m afraid of heights

So I’m just gonna stay here on the ground

Why should I keep risking my life

When you always let me down

My wandering eye

Was a side effect of loneliness

All of my lovers were

Distractions from the darkness

Because your loving touch

In all its beauty and madness

Continued to fade

Into a deafening sadness

Now I wouldn’t have guessed

As we lay on this fence

That we would fall victim

To uncertainty’s stench

Now much more than miles

Separate where we are

And if that’s all that’s between us

There is little left to regard

And if there is no need more need for words

Well then we are tragedy bound

And too weak to fight the urge

When I always let you down

Sometimes I falter

Into a lapsing of memory

And become willing and able

To sacrifice everything

For one more moment

However fleeting

Our love is a dream

But I am not sleeping

Yeah, you were the phantom

Hiding in the attic

Your haunting wails

Were low yet emphatic

And your every mistake

Seemed strategically placed

To weigh down my tear ducts

In hopes, they would break

Now all of the answers you are finding

They could have been so easily found

Your hesitation reminds me

That you only let me down