Avant Toi

It's whole days
Bending under a load
Never light
Always hunched over
Before you
Before you, let me tell you that
It's dragging my feet
It's barely existing
Despairing
That something will happen
Before you
Before you, let me tell you

Before you, what was it
If not a prelude
A long, painful journey
Then everything flips
Before you, it was nothing
Or so little that my body
Before you remembers
Feeling dead

It's struggling
Singing in the desert
For whom was it
All these verses, all these tunes
Before you
Before you, let me tell you

Before you, what was it
A rehearsal
Of tired words and gestures
Then the explosion
Before you, it was nothing
Or so little that my arms
Had never embraced
Anything but emptiness and cold

Before you, what was it
If not a prelude
A long, painful journey
Then everything flips
Before you, it was nothing
Or so little that my body
Before you remembers
Feeling dead

Before you, what was it
Just an immense stage
Way too vast for me
And then everything dances
Before you, it was nothing
Or so little that my life
Started the morning
Of the day I saw you.