paralithic

i'm tangled up in green plastic coils again
singing my secret song
halfway between Hell and salvation
(which may turn out to be the same place)
it's taken so long just to begin
and i've left my passion asleep under the tree outside your window
so i walk these sheetmetal corridors alone
and i come, breath by bated breath,
closer to your light.
closer to you.

under the shadow of a heavy cross
and through the lands you trod long before
i follow the traces of a passage i cannot yet understand
to a destiny only half feared
as only half seen in fever's troubled sleep
footprints in fate, the perfumed notes you've for left my soul
signed in quiet kisses and locks of red hair
through time, from the deep i seek,
closer to this mystery.
closer to you.

but to an emerald end unknown
like that of any man, troubled or graced
along the river's bank i drift
back to the barrows of my ancestor ghosts
to the breath of black dogs and prayers of horned gods
to the elder stone places where now only you are dancing
beckoning like love for me to take up the song
and fall into the ancient future i only suspect,
closer to madness.
closer to freedom.
closer to you.