Alchemy - Kirsty McGee

i brought back more that you will ever know

stare deep into the blue you’ll see the shapes that move below

i never learned a lesson that i didn’t learn by heart

and when one lesson ends i find, another lesson starts

and something moved me in the shadows on his skin

in a place where half-remembered clouds lie down upon the sea

shiplight and starlight as the colours disappear

where he paints from photographs, under a pale blue bulb

from the beginning he held me like a child

no jealousy or envy, he lets my heart run wild

he paints from photographs of sun and sea and sky

and softly he can play

and something in him haunts me

the water sighs sometimes when a wave hits solid ground

you can hear the stones sometimes, singing in the sea

there’s a sea-change in me — it’s in him too

and though we lost something beautiful

we make ourselves anew

i brought back more than you will ever know

stare deep into my eyes: all the sadnesses and things i’ve seen

it comes like alchemy, makes gold-dust of our hearts

and when one lesson ends i find, another lesson starts.