Crematorium
(a song)
On my own I stand today
and whisper the music
of the sage
alone and trembling I am not afraid
as the horses
run out
the gate.
I placed a Tarot card in your hand
the Empress smiled
as she turned to sand
and all my bones disappeared
but here I stand
no body
no mind
no face
But I could swear
I dreamed this before
Everything looks so clear;
Every note, every pore
of my fingers lifting the latch on the door
and the smell of my fear
as it burns on the floor
and the words of my mother
echoing once more:
“Child, you don’t have to be afraid,
Child you don’t have to be afraid.”
Cause everything in this world
gets eaten alive
every cell of every tree
every bee in the hive
dies alone in the warm mouth of Time;
and everything’s gonna be just fine.
Cause I feel something moving my pen
when I write
like I feel something tugging at the dark Veil
of night
Ten thousand stars and all I’m asking for
is a sign.
Familiar music
of a word
in flight.
Or the taste of your mouth as it turns into wine
or the histories of the moon and the poems of the sky
or the red horse sweating between my thighs
as across the Dreaming we ride and we ride.
The dreams of our fathers and the screams
of little girls, all gathered like cinders
at the end of the world
the Fire burns faster if you give into the swirl
of the madness of this age
of the madness of this age….
And I’ve never felt so old
and I’ve never felt so young
as when a story writes its life on my
lips and my tongue,
Burning like the Monks who know they are one
with the beautiful ashes in the cold winter sun
Kissing life like a bullet
screaming from the gun
at the mouth of the Rose where
glass webs are spun–
and shattered by a finger
that don’t know what it’s done,
But it’s a part of the Mystery
wrapped into one.
Like the painful coincidence
that burns my lungs.
With every breath, I seek Death
but am born to the sun–
A tree growin’ green
in a crematorium.
And I could swear
I dreamed this before
Everything looks so clear;
Every note, every pore
of my fingers lifting the latch on the door
and the smell of my fear
as it burns on the floor
and the words of my mother
echoing once more:
“Child, you don’t have to be afraid,
Child you don’t have to be afraid.”
Cause everything in this world
gets eaten alive
every cell of every tree
every bee in the hive
dies alone in the warm mouth of Time;
and everything’s gonna be just fine.
