Google Translate / poppies

(album: Forward / Slash - 2022)

You took Spanish in high school
But I took French
So when you're tired and delirious at almost 2 am
You type sentences into Google translate
And then you send them to me
'Je pense que Lea est trés jolie'

I don't think you know
Just how much it means to me
To watch you try to call me pretty
In a language, I know that you can't speak

You told me you didn't remember shit from Spanish class
You didn't know how you passed but you did
So even if I wanted to call you "pretty" back in your high school foreign language, neither one of us would know what I had said

So I'll stick to French
'Je pense que tu est très jolie aussi'
I think you're pretty, too
In a language that you still don't speak

Then I said
'Je t'aime, je t'aime, je t'aime' over and over again
A confession in French because I knew
You wouldn't know what it meant

And I know that you don't fall as easily as I do
So I won't press my luck and say it in words you'll understand
I'm too scared if I tell you, 'Hey, I love you' (I love you!)
'Te amo' (Te amo!)
I'd never get to hear you call me 'trés jolie' again

You took Spanish in high school
But I took French
I'm in college now, it's been four years since then
But I knew exactly what you said when you had sent
'Je pense que Lea est trés jolie'
You copied and you pasted, but it meant everything to me
To watch you try and call me pretty in a language you can't speak

I almost packed that painting I made
I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to throw it away
But if I didn't, then it would sit in the closet at my new house
The same way it did in my old apartment in the dark and face down

Poppies are my favorite, they burn red just like you
I know that you hate flowers, I thought I could convince you not to
If you saw the time it took, read that painting like your favorite book
"They Both Die In The End" and I guess what we had did, too

The background is colored with a poem you wrote
No painting of poppies could ever be as perfect or pretty as the words you spoke to me
At 2 am, translating your sentences
Do you still think I'm 'trés jolie' now that you just want to be friends?