Kingfisher
Whose is the hand that I will hold
Whose is the face I will see
Whose is the name that I will call
When I am called to meet thee
In this life, who did you love
Beneath the drifting ashes
Beneath the sheeting banks of air
That barrenly bore our rations
When I could speak, it was too late
Didn't you hear me calling
Didn't you see my heart leap
Like a pup in the constant barley
In this life, where did you crouch
When the sky had set to boiling
Burning within, seen from without
And your gut was a serpent, coiling
And, for the sake of that pit of snakes
For whom did you allay your shyness
And spend all your mercy and madness, and grace
In a day, beneath the bending cypress
It was not on principal
Show, Pro-heart, that you have got gall
A miracle, I can bear a lot, but not that pall
I can bear a lot, but not that pall!
Kingfisher, sound the alarm
Say, "Sweet little darling, now,
Come to my arms;
Tell me all about the love
You left on the farm"
He was a kind, unhurried man
With a heavy lip and a steady hand
But he loved me just like a little child
Like a little child loves a little lamb
Thrown to the ground by something down there
Bitten by the bad air, while the clouds tick
Trying to read all the signs
Preparing for when the bombs hit
Hung from the underbelly of the earth
While the stars skid away, below
Gormless and brakeless, gravel-loose
Falling silent as gavels in the snow
I lay back and spit my chaw
Wrapped in the long arm of the Law
Who has seen it all
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
Kingfisher, cast your fly
Oh, Lord, it happens without even trying
When I sling a low look from my shuttering eye
Blows rain upon the one you loved
And, though you were only sparring
There's blood on the eye, unlace the glove
Say, honey I am not sorry
Stand here and name the one you loved
Beneath the drifting ashes
And, in naming, rise above time
As it, flashing, passes
We came by the boatload
And were immobilized
Worshipping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth
Left us bound, and calcified
And made as obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking
Cracks loud as thunder rolling
I swear I know you, you know me
Where have we met before
Tell me true
To whose authority
Do you consign your soul
I had a dream you came to me
Said you shall not do me harm anymore
And with your knife, you evicted my life
From its little lighthouse on the seashore
And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath
It is too short, the day we are born
We commence with our dying
Trying to serve with the heart of a child
Kingfisher, lie with the lion |
Joanna Newsom:
