Six Word Saturday - Ritter "The Curse..."

He opens his eyes
Falls in love at first sight
With the girl in the doorway
What beautiful lines
How full of life
After thousands of years
What a face to wake up to
He holds back a sigh
As she touches his arm
She dusts off the bed
Where ‘til now he’s been sleeping
Under miles of stone
The dry fig of his heart
Under scarab and bones
Starts back to its beating

She carries him home
In a beautiful boat
He watches the sea
From a porthole in stowage
He can hear all she says
As she sits by his bed
And one day his lips answer her
In her own language
The days quickly pass
He loves making her laugh
The first time he moves
It’s her hair that he touches
She asks, “Are you cursed?”
He says, “I think that I’m cured.”
Then he talks of the Nile
And the girls in bulrushes

In New York he is laid
In a glass-covered case
He pretends he is dead
People crowd ‘round to see him
But each night she comes ‘round
And the two wander down
The halls of the tomb
That she calls a museum
Often he stops to rest
And then less and less
Then it’s her that looks tired
Stayin’ up asking questions
He learns how to read
From the papers that she
Is writing about him
And he makes corrections
It’s his face on her book
More and more come to look
There’s families from Iowa
Upper-West-Siders
Then one day it’s too much
He decides to get up
And as chaos ensues
He walks outside to find her
She’s using a cane
And her face looks too pale
But she’s happy to see him
As they walk he supports her
She asks, “Are you cursed?”
But his answer’s obscured
In a sandstorm of flashbulbs,
Rowdy reporters

Such re-animation
The two tour the nation
He gets out of limos
He meets other women
He speaks of her fondly
Their nights in the museum
But she’s just one more rag
Now he’s dragging behind him
She stops going out
She just lies there in bed
In hotels in whatever
Towns they are speaking
Then her face starts to set
And her hands start to fold
And one day the dry fig
Of her heart stops its beating

Long ago on the ship
She asked, “Why pyramids?”
He said, “Think of them as
An immense invitation.”
She asked, “Are you cursed?”
He says, “I think that I’m cured.”
Then he kissed her then hoped
That she’d forget that question.

I was blown away by this song of Josh Ritter, whom I saw supporting the wondrous Ray La Montagne last week... I adored the song's pure beauty and poignancy...

I hope you do too.

Oh, and please go and check out the glamorous Cate, who's responsible for managing the love-fest that is Six Word Saturday?

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