NOUR

Nour, ne pars pas
Don't leave. Out loud I said go
Nine minutes to the ferry horn

Your passport in your palm
The brass key in mine
Your ticket lay face-down
Neither of us turned it over
You asked for one true reason
Not the speech I learned by heart
I called the sea your future
Swore I wouldn't make it small
You said, "Don't call it freedom
When you choose for both of us"

The clerk raised her hand
You waited one beat
I said go with steady lips

Nour, ne pars pas
Your ticket down, the brass key in my hand
I said go, every letter meant stay
Nour, don't let my last word be go

I said go and called it love
Stay went weak behind my teeth
Nour, ne pars pas

Six weeks, your postcard came
Four lines, no address, a smudged stamp
You needed truth, not permission
You asked if I needed you too
Seventeen recordings
On the eighteenth I stopped performing
I was scared that if you stayed
You'd see how much I needed you

I did not set you free
I sent you away and let it sound noble
I stood at that gate with stay behind my teeth
And I let the horn take you

Nour, je viens vers toi
The brass key still in my pocket, still yours
First light is carrying me over the water
Nour, I'm bringing you the word I owed

The old town falls behind me
Nour, je viens vers toi