Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherised upon a table
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question
Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make our visit
We drift beneath the yellowed lamps
Where shadows lean on brick and smoke
And time slips sideways through our hands
Like something neither said nor spoke
The night rehearses what we fear
Then forgets it just as fast
Leaving us to trace the cracks
Where future leaks into the past
Footsteps echo half a thought
A question almost brave enough
The city holds its breath in doorways
Wet with rain and worn with love
Windows glow with borrowed lives
Laughter thin as paper walls
Someone's glass against a table
Keeps the only time that calls
Oh, do not ask what is it
Let us go and make our visit
Through the smoke, through the rain
Through the words we can't explain
I measure courage in small acts
A glance that lingers half a beat
A sentence folded back again
Before it dares to find its feet
We walk the long way round the truth
Two coats, one umbrella, no address
The city knows what we won't say
And keeps it like a cold caress
Oh, do not ask what is it
Let us go and make our visit
Through the smoke, through the rain
Through the words we can't explain
So let us walk a little more
Not toward answers, not quite home
But through this pause between the lines
Where wanting learns to live alone
If there is meaning, let it wait
It knows this city, knows the way
Tonight is only you and I
And words we'll almost say