Love, Drew

It’s the first time I’ve heard this song, Meteorflower by July for Kings.  In fact, it’s the first time I’ve heard any song by this band.  But I’m quickly learning that Drew adores music and likes all kinds of groups I’ve never heard of.  I’m driving home from Ft. Collins, where he’s living for now.  We’ve been dating for a few weeks, since late June.  As we were saying goodbye tonight, he said with a sheepish smile, “This is for you,” and handed me a CD he made.  ‘To Kendra, Love Drew,’ the silver surface reads in black Sharpie.  I find his handwriting hunched, puerile… endearing.  Heading west on Harmony and getting onto I-25 South, I put the CD in.  The garish light at the gas station on the corner fades in my rearview mirror.  Sparse rain stops peppering my windshield.  A guitar plays, and I glance up at the cool, vast sky through the sunroof.  I smell cigarettes and gasoline for a second.  I’m passing by that huge neon sign for the RV Park near the highway, one tan arm out the window, drawing in the air as it sometimes whispers, sometimes whips by my ears.  The faint hissing noise coming from the tires on moist asphalt is calming.   

Meteorflower, you settled in my life

Shine among the cut-out stars and fireflies

Singing careful songs across a Technicolor night

I think I want to fly away with you…

I’ll hold the stars above your life…

Write our names across the galaxy, Meteorflower… 

Then I’m near the exit for Loveland or something, and I hear the beginning to one of my very favorite songs—it’s a live version of Yellow, by Coldplay.  I allow for a little thrill.  I remember saying I loved it when we went for a drive in Horsetooth Reservoir.  

 

I open the sunroof and witness how close the stars are, survey the contrast created between the bright white and the cavernous dark.  Engrossing.  I think I can keep my eyes on the sky for a moment more; the road is laid out straight in front of me.  The light air that rushes in carries the scent of damp trees and leaves.  I’m the only one on the road.  Now all the windows are open; my hair flutters, floats around my head and face.  I think I feel myself blushing, even though there’s no one around to see it.  One hand is out the sunroof in the wind, and my new CD is turned up on the speakers, pulsing in my arms and neck and chest.  Artlessly, I sing along and fumble to feel the beat, the drums through the steering wheel.    

Look at the stars, look how they shine for you

And all the things you do…

I came along, I wrote a song for you…

You’re skin, oh yeah, you’re skin and bones

Turned into something beautiful

‘Cause you know, you know I love you so…

It’s true

Look how they shine for you…                                                

I break into a wide smile.  It’s the first time I think, maybe Drew is falling for me.