Seedy Ballad

The bats are in the belfry
the dew is on the moor
where are the arms that held me
and pledged her love before
and pledged her love before

Had he really wasted so much time, exploring dark recesses
Scooping up shiny rocks, hoping they were diamonds
When there was magic lurking beneath his skin
He was too sick to have ever seen any other path
He never saw her keeping pace but remaining a wallflower

It’s such a sad old feeling
the fields are soft and green
it’s memories that I’m stealing
but you’re innocent when you dream, when you dream
you’re innocent when you dream

His grizzled words growl off the yellowed page
Raging yet gentle like an autumn sunset
Howling, wailing, a lament for having been born
He had felt too much, drank too much, tried to tune out too much
This day was like a revival, a celebration of sensations

Running through the graveyard
we laughed my friends and I
we swore we’d be together
until the day we died
until the day we died

Breaking out of his too-tight skin, ideas poured out like cleansing fire
The years were transfigured in his memory, grotesque
Waiting like rusty weather vanes to find directions of the wind
She sharpened her pencils and softened her heart
Helping him over and through the tangled thickets of pain and despair

I made a golden promise
that we would never part
I gave my love a locket
and then I broke her heart
and then I broke her heart

They traveled through narrow alleys and wide plains
She cradled his head when he felt tortured
He caressed her with his words, sometimes roughly
She took what he gave, he hurtled through space and time
They sipped from seedy wells and tasted the fading gaudy sunrise

It’s such a sad old feeling
the fields are soft and green
it’s memories that I’m stealing
but you’re innocent when you dream, when you dream
you’re innocent when you dream