L'absinthe

They drank absinthe
Like you’d drink water
One was named Verlaine
The other, Rimbaud
To write poems
You don’t drink water
You’re not Verlaine
You’re not Rimbaud
But when you say I love you
Oh my god, it’s beautiful
Way more beautiful than a poem
By Verlaine or Rimbaud

Yet I love to hear
Again and again
The song of lovers
When it rains in the city
The song of lovers
When it rains in my heart
And our souls are gray
And the violins cry
Yet, I want to hear it
Again and again
You know it intoxicates me
The song of those
Who love and die for it
And if my soul is gray
You’ll dry my tears

They drank absinthe
Like you drink water
But one was Verlaine
The other was Rimbaud
To write poems
You don’t drink water
Today, I love you
Is written in two words
No more long poems
The music of words
That got Verlaine high
That made Rimbaud drunk

For I want to know
Those golden drinks that intoxicated their hearts
And drowned their pain
Oh, let me know them
Those golden drinks that get us high
And flow in our veins
And pour me a drink
Again and again
Here I am getting drunk
I’m your drunken boat
With you, I drift

And I love and I die
From the fumes of absinthe
They cloud me
I see flowers climbing
On the velvet curtains
What is this moan
Heavy like a sob
It’s them coming back
Again and again
In the cold winter wind
Hear them dragging
The hanged ones of Rimbaud
The drowned ones of Verlaine
Frozen by death
In the black waters of the Seine
It hurts to hear them
Again and again
Oh, let this drunken boat
Take us adrift
Let it sink to the bottom
And with you, I die

We drank absinthe
Like you’d drink water
And I love you, I love you
Oh my god, it’s beautiful
Way more beautiful than a poem
By Verlaine or Rimbaud