Are you afraid of the darkness?
Well i ain’t afraid no more
Because a sailor has to sail at night
& leave that sunny shore.
Are you afraid of the darkness
which constructs you as a man?
Are you crouched behind a fig leaf
are you coming to life with your hand?
I suspect you don’t keep mirrors
in your pocket anymore.
But you may still crave the taste of the earth
the feel of your back or your chest on the floor.
Black balls, black balls bouncing off the walls
bouncing through the halls of my mind
Men men don’t you come again
I need some space inside my mind.
You looked so like Odysseus,
a god inside my mind
although your hair was filled with sea-plants
& your skin was caked in brine.
& your eyes grew black & blacker
as they watched the baby sky
& you lay on your back like a dying vine
that you wanted me to climb
But I was dumb & dumber
as passive as a grain.
And I feared the black of altitude
& the altitude of gain.
Black balls, black balls bouncing off the walls
bouncing through the halls of my mind
men men don’t you come again i need some space inside my mind.
And my face was traced & placed
I was the prophet of your cave
and you’d watch me by the firelight
through the flicker of your cooking flame.
And you’d lay back like a lady
and you’d dream that you were me
and I’d dream I was Odysseus
sailing wild on the wild wild sea.