Song 72: Quiet Love

Lyrics

[Intro]

[Verse 1]
He never said it
Not once
In any of the languages
He had available
And he had three

But he adjusted the mirror in the car
Before I got in
Every time
So the mirror would already know
My height
And the mirror knowing my height
Before I did
Was the sentence
He never said

And the sentence
Was longer than any sentence
I've ever been told
By the men who said it
Beautifully
And often
And to several people
On the same afternoon

[Pre-Chorus]
Quiet love
Doesn't have a vocabulary
It has a car mirror
And a folded blanket
And a glass of water
On the nightstand
That appeared
Without a conversation
About thirst

[Chorus]
L'amour tranquille, l'amour tranquille
The love that never learned to say itself
L'amour tranquille, l'amour tranquille
Actions filed in a cabinet labelled something else
Not romance — logistics
Not passion — precision
The right chair pulled out
At the right moment
And the moment never asking
To be noticed
And the not noticing
Being the whole point
Because quiet love
Doesn't want applause
It wants the chair
To be in the right place
When you arrive

[Verse 2]
Bà ngoại woke at four
Every morning for forty years
And put the kettle on
So the water would be ready
When my grandfather woke at five

She never told him
He never asked
The kettle was simply ready
And the ready
Was the marriage
Not the ceremony — not the ring
The kettle at four
For the man who wakes at five

Và ông ấy biết
And he knew
Because every evening
He sharpened her kitchen knife
Without being asked
And the knife was always sharp
And the sharpness
Was his four in the morning
His version of the kettle
His way of saying
In the only language
The quiet ones speak:
Tomorrow will be easier
Because of something
I did tonight

[Chorus]
L'amour tranquille, l'amour tranquille
The love that never learned to say itself
L'amour tranquille, l'amour tranquille
The kettle and the knife
The mirror and the glass
The verbs that did the work
The nouns refused to do
Quiet love
Written in a language
Made entirely of gestures
That the dictionary
Has not yet
Agreed to index

[Bridge]
I used to want the words
I used to think
The love that doesn't speak
Is the love that doesn't exist

And then I watched him
Drive forty minutes in the rain
To bring me a coat
I'd left at a restaurant
That was closing

And he didn't say
I drove forty minutes
He said
You left your coat

And the coat was warm
And the rain was on his shoulders
And the shoulders
Said everything
The mouth
Had too much pride to say


And I learned
That the quiet love
Is not the lesser love
It's the love
That trusted the coat
To make the speech

[Outro]
L'amour tranquille