gotta take them shadow breaths,
shallow-soft ‘n silent,
don’t wanna fret ‘n fright the poor thing.
‘n ain’t it a skittish one.
I know,
I know
you wanna plunge arm first into the guts of it
to go passion drunk ‘n trampin’ into the thick of it,
but that ain’t,
that ain’t how adults conduct themselves.
{the trick of it’s always been:
ain’t no one says what ‘n adult is,
but you, but you, but you,
‘n they told us when we was, so, so, little,
“stop botherin’ me with ‘why’,
’cause I said, that’s ‘why’.“}
keep off that spring-board lip,
breathe them shadow breaths,
gotta, gotta, keep from seemin’ too eager.
it’s all about the holdin’ back,
the lyin’ tact.
that’s what, that’s what lands ’em.
