You sing to me in the winter of ‘94

This blazing voice in the arctic outbreak

Amidst sub-zero temps and concrete samples,

You tell me of the cold and the blood stains

While you remind me I’m lost 

 

I meet you in the art room

Exchanging poems with the princess with the long curly hair

A cassette playing “Jerusalem”

This howl against the walls

Hovering above combat boots and ripped jeans

A renegade like me

 

I dance with you in the repercussions

Midnight’s madness

Chicago alleyways and CRX speakers

Medusa’s Loreleis

Shaking to syncopated lights

 

You persist on the radio about the emperor’s new clothes

And you preach on music TV about a love  taken away

But I pick out another lyric set to another melody

Telling me I’m not like I was before

Telling me that nothing will change me

 

And in the hollow heat

The aftermath

There is a “Fire on Babylon”

This haunt in the harmony

Tells me “It’s All Good”

This shimmer in the melody

Says this “Love is Ours”

 

In the space between so long ago and ever afterwards

You serenade me to the black fading moon

A Phoenix from the flame

And so far gone

It’s just like you said it would be