“Just a friendly reminder that I would never have thought it was possible to go back and remake my previous work, uncovering lost art and forgotten gems along the way, if you hadn’t emboldened me. Red is about to be mine again, but it has always been ours. Tonight we begin again. Red (my version) is out now.”
—Taylor Swift via Instagram, Nov. 12, 2021
Loving him is like
floating the Euphrates toward a dead-end stream:
faster than the wind, passionate as sin,
winding so serpently.
Losing him was red as the apple
that touched both our lips,
kinda like a Snapple
and a little bit of piss.
Loving you, babe, was my original sin.
“Bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh”
what sounded romantic
was just treacherous.
Cuz I asked for your heart
but you gave me a rib —
Outback Steakhouse in the Garden of Eden.
Maybe I fell for temptation
maybe I asked for too much
but maybe this thing was a masterpiece
that you doused in barbecue sauce.
Loving you, babe, was my original sin.
I know you still think about it every now and then
I know you wish we could just begin again.
Cuz you keep my old fig leaf from that very first week
it reminds you of innocence
and it smells like me.
You can’t get rid of it
it’s in Genesis.
Jenna Barnett is senior associate culture editor at Sojourners. Find her on Twitter: @jennacbarnett.
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