Wakefulness has come to be
A pale respite, a poignant dream
Reality has paled and ceased
To be of real devoir to me.

Amongst the living, I trail the dead
That intone from the Netherlands
And in their voices, they do spread
The need to meet their languished hands.

There in the dusk's cerulean shores
Towards the night's sapphire core from
Whence winged creatures dart and soar
I sleep to leave what I abhor.

With Morpheus I cast aside
The shell from which by day reside
In chiaroscuro paradise
I lift my head to meet your eyes.

By day you're nothing, dust and ash
And memories that shall not last
By night, draw breath, return to me,
Come back to life within my dreams.



*Original, Un-rhymed Notes:

The waking world has become surreal
After everything that's happened
All things are a pale shade of what they used to be
Those that aren't here call out to me louder than the scores of the living
I feel them, carried with me
Clinging, pulling me back towards
dreams.

I see them there, whole and unscathed

If I could barter time itself
And make the past today,
I'd hand away the future
For parts of yesterday.

If I could trade my happiness
And pluck it from tomorrow,
I'd binge on what you brought to me
To stave off all this sorrow

If I could turn my back away
From my own form of nature
I'd hold the hallowed night away
To have the Sun forever.

*Once the day is done, it's gone;
No touching yesterday.
And only I can salvage smiles
From the wreck I've made.

If all I am's the landlord's daughter
High up in my room
Then you're the lonely Highwayman
That rides beneath the moon

Though, unlike Bess, the little death
I sought did not bring end
Not to our lives, but to our dreams
That rose so to descend.

My sacrifice was not my life
Lost somewhere in the dark
My method then of saving you
Was severing us apart.

For one to live a fuller life
The other must endure
A subdued sadness veiled beneath
Another’s cruel censure.


To keep you safe, I’ll bow my head
And watch on past your form
Knock on another’s doleful Inn
This Bess won’t cause you harm.

Ride on, my precious Highwayman
There’s nothing here for you
Your treasure lies beyond this Inn
A path you must see through.