Drawing of the Noose
From the collection Funeral Music
o frame
The sun between the hands of youth
In a golden meadow of prospect
Welcoming, idyllic footpaths of a promised future
Roll on beyond the horizon
To draw
Invigorating air into vital lungs
To trace lofty clouds with grander eyes
Vistas pregnant with life and possibility
Unable to anticipate storm or sunset
Drawn up on a hill
Set forth before the witness of earth, sky, and spectacle
Hangs there the scaffold
Upon which I bear the noose
And the sins of which I'm accused
Penalty and punishment upon the gallows accrued
Drawn rope assures the debt is nil
To hang
The moon above the fog of the blackest midnight
Pale miasma steals upon the grave sight
As if to engulf the plague of life
To impart the death I must die
To hang
My life dangles between earth and sky
In the mean of birth and death
Hanging in the balance and the balance due
What's the meaning of it
How must it come to this
Dungeons cannot convey
The infinity of my pain
Drawn up on a hill
Set forth before the witness of earth, sky, and spectacle
Hangs there the scaffold
Upon which I bear the noose
And the sins of which I'm accused
Penalty and punishment upon the gallows accrued
Drawn rope assures the debt is nil
That I come to nought
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