inspired by the movie “and then we danced”, directed by Levan Akin
you are gone, but you are part of me now.
your sunset caresses are a permanent mark on my back,
your gentle hands set my legs
rooted in new soil,
your drunken cavort down the street
is the rhythm i now dance to;
your sunlight lungs that melted me with a greeting,
now breathe lightness into my chest
and your devilish smile is now on my lips.
and suddenly,
i am an entirely new man,
soft and graceful and mysterious,
freer than ever before, and–
and i can never go back.
when i rush through the streets of tbilisi
i am drowned in the
orange sorrow of a city that does not love
me as i loved her.
i cannot return to those
crumbling confines of the studio, its
rigidity of artificial stone and the
cold slap of water.
how can i harden again when
my own touch cannot comfort myself anymore,
when i see how empty
the room is when i am shattered?
as i fly away, i see you chained
to your own starving world,
like i once was.
we are the same man, you and i.
and after you have undone me,
my heart aches for what i’ve undone to you.
one day, we shall meet again, my love, my first love,
strange exiles in the land that we call home.