bright star

  ~ Indigo Girls' "Fare Thee Well"

fare thee well my bright star

i watched your taillights blaze into nothingness 
but you were long gone before i ever got to you 

before you blazed past this address 




and now i think of having loved and having lost 
but never know what it's like to never love 
who can say what's better and my heart's become the cost 
a mere token of a brighter jewel sent from above

fare thee well my bright star 
the vanity of youth the color of your eyes 
and maybe if i'd fanned the blazing fire of your day-to-day 
or if i'd been older i'd been wise

too thick the heat of those long summer evenings 
for a cool evening i began to yearn 
but you could only feed upon the things which feed a fire 
waiting to see if i would burn

fare thee well my bright star 
it was a brief brilliant miracle dive 
that which i looked up to and i clung to for dear life 
had to burn itself up just to make itself alive

and i caught you then in your moment of glory 
your last dramatic scene against a night sky stage 

with a memory so clear that it's as if you're still before me 
my once in a lifetime star of an age

so fare thee well my bright star 
last night the tongues of fire circled me around 
and this strange season of pain will come to pass 
when the healing hands of autumn cool me down