Never try to trick me with a kiss
Pretending that the birds are here to stay;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

A stone can masquerade where no heart is
And virgins rise where lustful Venus lay:
Never try to trick me with a kiss.

Our noble doctor claims the pain is his,
While stricken patients let him have his say;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

Each virile bachelor dreads paralysis,
The old maid in the gable cries all day:
Never try to trick me with a kiss.

The suave eternal serpents promise bliss
To mortal children longing to be gay;
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

Sooner or later something goes amiss;
The singing birds pack up and fly away;
So never try to trick me with a kiss:
The dying man will scoff and scorn at this.

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

There's a woman sitting
on a chair in the garden thinking
is that all right are things
really going
alright thinking
there's a boy squatting
in the grass in the backyard not kicking
the football thinking
is this all going well is it
okay that way thinking
there's a girl looking
at the corn flower not moving thinking
is everything really how it should be are things
going how they should thinking
there's an old man pausing on his  daily walk squinting
into the last rays of sunlight thinking well if this is
alright and fine thinking
     there's a baby popping out of
a mother
not thinking already
loving all that offers
itself in this place already sensing
this is going to be
a hell of an adventure sensing
     somewhere an old man
suddenly feels
an impulse to keep
walking
A boy slaps his own thighs gets up howls
into the evening light kicking
a ball a woman letting out
a breath she was holding lifting
her can to water
the flowers a girl
sets herself back
into motion
a smile on the face somewhere
in space a green planet
has gained new
confidence

waltzing along
our beloved song

I used to be
quite better at this,

didn't intend to step on your feet,
you didn't intend to care about me.

and when the music stops,
will you say a prayer

for the sake of a soul remnant,

for the sake of a no longer living
man that believed
that dance with the dead
was the cure for his pain?

i betray myself every night,
when i sneak off
and see you in my dreams.