Ocean Vuong - The Gift lyrics

a b c a b c a b c She doesn't know what comes after. So we begin again: a b c a b c a b c But I can see the fourth letter: a strand of black hair --- unraveled from the alphabet & written on her cheek. Even now the nail salon will not leave her: isopropyle acetate, ethyl acetate, chloride, sodium lauryl sulfate & sweat fuming through her pink I ❤️️ NY t-shirt a b c a b c a -- the pencil snaps. The b bursting its belly as dark dust blows through a blue-lined sky. Don't move, she says, as she picks a wing bone of graphite from the yellow carca**, slides it back between my fingers. Again. & again I see it: The strand of hair lifting from her face... how it fell onto the page -- & lived with no sound. Like a word. I still hear it.