Song 74: Companionate

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1 — Sisukiro]
We stopped finishing each other's sentences
Somewhere around year eleven
Not because we forgot
But because the sentence
Didn't need finishing
The first four words
Contained the whole paragraph
And the paragraph
Contained the evening
And the evening
Contained us

The attachment system
Has moved from the penthouse
To the foundation
You don't feel it anymore
The way you don't feel the floor
Until someone removes it
And then it's the only thing
You ever think about

[Pre-Chorus — Both]
And the not feeling it
Is not the absence of love
It's love that has become load-bearing
And load-bearing things
Don't announce themselves
They just hold

[Chorus — Both]
L'amour compagnon, l'amour compagnon
The love that stopped being weather and became climate
L'amour compagnon, l'amour compagnon
Intimacy plus commitment
Minus the performance
The dance in the kitchen
With no music
Except the refrigerator
And the refrigerator
Has always been enough

[Verse 2 — Orikusis]
Bà ngoại never said I love you
Not once in forty years
She said: đóng cửa lại, gió lạnh
Close the door, the wind is cold
And that was the translation
The whole dictionary
In five words about a door and a wind

My grandfather understood the translation
And closed the door
Every single time
Without needing the subtitle
And the closing of the door
Forty years of closing the door
Was the longest love poem
Either of them ever wrote
And it didn't rhyme
And it didn't need to

[Pre-Chorus — Both]
And the not needing to
Is companionate love
The part of the love
That outlives the poem
And washes the dishes
After the poem
Goes to bed

[Chorus — Both]
L'amour compagnon, l'amour compagnon
The love that stopped being weather and became climate
L'amour compagnon, l'amour compagnon
Close the door the wind is cold
That's the whole thing
That's the forty years
That's the kitchen dance
And the unfinished sentence
And the floor you only notice
When someone takes it away

[Bridge — Sisukiro alone]
There's a version of this
That sounds like giving up
The passion faded
The excitement left
The butterflies died
And here you are
With a kettle and a routine
And someone who knows
Which cupboard the paracetamol lives in

But knowing which cupboard
Is the deepest intimacy I've found
Deeper than the first kiss
Deeper than the secret
Deeper than the thing
You said at three in the morning
That neither of you mentions

The cupboard
The paracetamol
The not having to ask
That's the companionate love
The love with the longest résumé
And the quietest interview
And the permanent position

[Outro]