Same Girl, New Skyline

Same girl, new skyline
New stamp, same smile
Gate seven, night flight
Same girl, new skyline

Rain on the runway, midnight on the glass
Carousel four moving slow beneath the signs
Yellow ribbon tied around your suitcase handle
One bad wheel complaining like last time
Same denim jacket from that June in Accra
Same laugh before you call me trouble
Your phone says three percent, the driver says hurry
Still we let the baggage circle one more round
No grand entrance, no camera waiting
Just your hand finding mine beneath the board
Every city changes how the evening looks
You arrive and I know where I am

New gate, new room
Different rain against the glass
But you say my name the same way
And the whole long distance collapses

Same girl, new skyline
New stamp, same hand in mine
Airports keep changing, but your laugh arrives on time
Same girl, new skyline

Different city
Same little smile
Different morning
Stay for a while
The passport keeps the dates
Your laugh keeps the time

Two weeks later, Nairobi in the rain
Cold airport coffee balanced on my case
You still carry both our jackets on one shoulder
Still forget which pocket holds the change
I brought the gold bracelet from the Accra market
You brought the book I left beside your bed
The shuttle calls; we miss it by one minute
Not because we're dancing—because neither one has finished
You ask what city comes after this one
I say, Whichever lets us wake up slow
The board keeps changing letters over our heads
But some things never need translating

New gate, new room
Different rain against the glass
You say my name the same way
And the whole long distance collapses

Same girl, new skyline
New stamp, same hand in mine
Airports keep changing, but your laugh arrives on time
Same girl, new skyline

These pages know when every flight came down
They don't know the coffee went cold while we talked
They don't know I held your shoes through Accra rain
Or you kept my broken suitcase wheel from falling off
They count departures
We remember the days
The passport keeps the dates
Your laugh keeps the time

Same girl, new skyline
New stamp, same hand in mine
Every city changes, but your laugh arrives on time
Same girl, new skyline
Lagos in the raincoat, Accra in the bracelet
Nairobi in the coffee we forgot
Wherever the next board writes our names
Same girl, new skyline

Yellow ribbon, broken wheel
Gate seven fading on the glass
You ask, Where next?
I say, Wherever you arrive
Same girl, new skyline