Child, I would tell you a story now,
but it’s lost inside my mind.
It’s the story how I landed here
on a summer’s eve, from a lavender sky.
It’s the story of falling in a field,
eyes glued shut,
time knocked from your mind.
It’s the story of the opening eye,
the tentative hand,
the slow slow crawl of a black and foreign sky.
It’s the story of the boot in the face,
the head on the earth,
the small green plants that dance before your eyes.
It’s the story of their whispering words,
their delicate songs,
the glistening laces that they leave behind.
Oh, I don’t want to die here!
I want to get back to the place I knew before
to see my mother again, to sleep by the hearth-fire
nestled like a baby on her floor.
Orphan, let me tell you it’s a slippery world
if you’re lost on the road of men.
With less than a hammer to call your own,
do you think you’ll make it back to the ship again?
Sage sage, if i shut my eyes, is there any chance
I could feel the world again?
Jade jade, in a poppy field, is there any chance
I could dream myself again?
Oh, I don’t want to die here!
I want to get back to the place I knew before
to see my mother again, to sleep by the hearth-fire
nestled like a baby on her floor.
Officer, I have nothing to say- you can lock me away
if that’s what you do with the beggars
who collapse upon your door.
It won’t be much different, anyway,
from the prison that I’ve known since I landed
on earth’s floor.
And though my memory fills like a dusky stream
you bring back the scent of a man I knew before.
But your arms are not strong, there’s no place to rest,
no heart like a pillow, no eyes that hinge like a door.
Oh, I don’t want to die here!
I want to get back to the place I knew before
to see my mother again, to sleep by the hearth-fire
nestled like a baby on her floor.
Child child, you remember my name and we’ll
hope to meet on the gold gold beaches of the shore,
above the billowing clouds through the yellow summer sun,
through the eye of the sky where it hinges on the future like a door.
Oh, I don’t want to die here!
I want to get back to the place I knew before
to see my mother again, to sleep by the hearth-fire
nestled like a baby on her floor.