say you'll never leave me you never learn
so say the gates of Mt. Auburn
 
say you'll be the first thing I see each day
watching the buses on Broadway
 
say you never wander, you're always near
following the line down Hampshire
 
say you're made of tension, made of sighs
I'll see you on Bishop Allen Drive
 
 
say you are the moment, speak it slow
put your hand on the lightswitch
 
and then let the darkness fill the room
among the streets of Cambridge
 
 
take back the presents you never sent
leave them by a curb on Crescent
 
take back the softness you hardened
insisting on one way down Garden
 
take back every broken word
and throw them in a spa on Oxford
 
take back the way you said goodbye
and I'll see you on Memorial Drive
 
 
we could have been angels in battle
now I'm looking for parking on Brattle
 
we could have been gales in a wisher's port
now I'm here in the rain on Lilac Court
 
say you are the moment, speak it slow
put your hand on the lightswitch
 
and then let the darkness fill the room
among the streets of Cambridge
 
 
[For Christmas my parents gave us kalimbas. We learned "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" in a round as thanks, which got me thinking about "The Bells of Rhymney". The kalimbas plug in. I set out to write a electric-kalimba version of "The Bells of Rhymney" for Cambridge, knowing that that probably wouldn't be what I ended up with.]