With a weight between my shoulders blades, I walk
Cherry blossom petals catch in my hair
And silently fall to the sidewalk below.
The music throbs, loud as I dare,
As if to drown out all but the mountains
Vanishing into the heaviest clouds.

It doesn't work; music has it's uses
But the weight on my heart doesn't isolate well.
Easier to catch cherry blossom petals
Wind-tossed into the cloudy sky
Before they fall to the sidewalk;
The mountains, distant, fall into me.

The sidewalk seems to ground me, unexpected
As clouds on a day of sunny forecasts.
It seems there is no where to escape this weight
Should I run as far as the mountains;
The music knows this. I hear you in every song.
Blossoms show your face, then hide again.

I feel the petals of one blossom in my hand
Pausing the slap of my feet on the sidewalk.
I have always liked better the scent of mountain pines;
The flowers have no weight in their scent,
Only a sweet cloud, soon to dissipate.
“But you prefer sweetness,” I say to the music that's
you.

The clouds hang limply over the sky
Drowning the mountains, drowning me
In music that can not save me
From the touch of cherry blossom petals
Or the weight I carry with me
As hard as the sidewalk below.

I want so badly to vanish to the mountains,
To hide where your music can not find me
Up there, light as or lighter than the clouds
Far from this long, cracked sidewalk
As wind could scatter cherry blossom petals,
But I can't hide from the weight in my heart.

Yet weighted down here on the sidewalk,
Where cherry blossom petals fly out towards the mountains
A word from you, sweetest music, could carry me over the
clouds.