I found her in a shepherd’s vale
With lilies twined up in her hair
I asked her what had brought her there
and she called the wind by name
She smiled wide and looked around
To dig amidst the lost and found
The hearts and hopes strewn on the ground
I’d come to do the same
A morning dew had kissed the grass
and how she danced, this bonnie lass
Her dress was slick as time ran past
No moment could lay claim
She skipped about in joyful search
Singing shanties to the birch
the ravens joined her from their perch
to whistle down the rain
And as clouds formed far up above
I called out to my sunrise love
To have in mind the weary dove
Which amidst the vale had lain
But as I called the thunder boomed
its darkling pillars then to loom
the lightning cracked, herald of doom
heavens turned black with stain
I cried to her with no reply
and searched for us some place to hide
as the water rose in grasping tide
the earth was churned with rain
At last within I found a cave
lined with stones as sharp as glaives
No comfort could this barrow gave
Its walls tear-streaked with pain
I stoked a fire, burning bright
For her to spot, follow the light
Waiting forty days and forty nights
Until the skies were clear again
I stepped out once more under the sun
Catching a glimpse, began to run
Of all the youth alive inside me, none
survived this valley of my bane
For in the field, chilling my blood
a perfect hand jut through the mud
and in its palm there lay a dove
Its chest heaving with shame
Clenched in its beak were olive leaves
Never to fall with autumn’s ease
I cried, sinking down to my knees
to dig, a beast untamed
I tore the earth apart with haste
Though sanguine streams fled from my nails
The seconds were not mine to waste
To take her from this ‘cursed vale
I buried her inside the cave
And set the dove upon her grave
Each heart is someone else’s slave
and mine is hers to claim
Should she awake some starlit night
She’ll find me waiting out the blight
Her shape will never leave my sight
Next to her tomb I’ve lain
And if this letter finds you soon,
my oldest friend, be still your heart
compose for us a solemn tune
a warning from the start
I pray you’ll see me yet again
with dove and bride at worries’ end
until my sun shall rise again
my word will never bend
Though memr’y serves no desperate fools
or lovers caught in nature’s ruse
Our story is for you to choose
How best to make this plain:
In searching you will often find
those things far better left behind
Your heart is that which makes you blind
and your partner just the same
And as this world keeps spinning round
In hues of blue and grey and brown
She waits for me beneath the ground
and calls to me by name
