Cafe Hitch-hike

2021-10-08

I see why you listen to that music

I heard the music and at first I felt sad because it reminded me of you, but then it started to speak to me. It stirred me, and I connected how I felt through the music with what I remembered about you and us.

I see why you listen to that music. It takes you back to times that were much slower and more simple. You were just a kid when these tinny songs played over the waves in the Caribbean, but you and the music found each other later.

The lyrics are easy to listen to and understanding, and it's like hearing short stories of love, loss, belonging, passion, and even life's little accidents. The voices are true, not synthesized, and despite the degrading of sound that happens over time, that quality remains. I see why you liked the music considering how much you liked Mark Twain.

The feelings expressed were from those who knew passion a little more than sorrow, who knew joy a little more than pain, who knew happiness a little more than hurt. I doubt you know how large a presence sorrow, pain, and hurt had in their world, but at least they had just enough of the light to not dwell in complete darkness. Did the music express feelings you rarely saw around you but wished to?

I imagined us dancing to this music in my living room again. You said you didn't dance, but I still tried despite the hesitation in your face and your body. I slyly replied, 'you should, because you already kind of do,' referring to your enthusiasm and chemistry when we danced in other ways. Like the music, I hoped dancing brought a little more joy than fear we felt about the uncertain world around us. I put my arms around you then you swayed for a bit toward the end of the song, somewhat convinced, but I remember how you eased into a sense of contentment and how happy I felt, which you saw in my face.

This music hit me the same way. I got to visit the island, and I heard a brief though beautiful song with the lyrics No worries, no arguments with the songstress pleading with her partner to stop with the fighting and being hung up on life's worries and to just love each other instead. I never got the name of that simple yet luminous song, and hoped maybe I could find it through ones you'd send me or one of your playlists.

The music came from a world away from you. I sometimes wondered if you preferred to dwell in that one than the one you were born into.

downwind | upstream