A Dream of Elizabeth
May 2005
I came home soaked in ginger with a head full of wine
And I thought I heard you calling from the outskirts of time,
Setting warm drowsy meadows abuzz in my brain,
Your dulcet whisper summoned me to sleep and I came
And I dreamed a celestial fury unsurpassed,
And we waited in a skyscraper made of glass
While the heavens went crimson with mortal wrath
And they cast down a funnel that loomed in our path
The sky broke open and the universe shook
With a rage so fierce that I could not look
But you sat and you watched with impossible tranquility
An ocean of composure and infallibility
And when the weight of the thunder brought me to my knees
You held both of my hands and you kept your peace
And I buried my face in your lap with closed eyes
And I thought, “What a beautiful place to die.”
But that’s when the apocalypse changed its mind
And it passed into the elsewhere and left us behind
And rainbows were born and the sun was set free
And with immaculate humility you smiled and said, “See?”
So we built a crystal highway out of nothing but our laughter
And set out in pursuit of the ever-after
There were majesties of mountains that bade us linger
In a terra carved by ancient glaciers’ fingers
I became part-starlight and you became an amazon
Somewhere in the deep azure valleys of Saskatchewan
But the coastal rainforest called us on
And we listened to the wind and we spoke to the dawn
We slept in a verdant arboreal palace
Canopied with only aurora borealis
Freedom was our work and the earth was our gold
And our neighbors were sequoias a thousand years old
Armed with only wonder as our magic wand
We looked into the heart of the great beyond
And with faith as our guardian and grace as our guide
We walked into the nothing and came out the other side
And the journey was so vivid that when I came to
I could still feel the storm and the forest and you
And even though I knew I was back in my bed
I could still smell the sky and the sea in my dreads
I could still taste the sacred and the true and the free
And I could still hear your voice when you smiled and said, “See?”
May 2005
I came home soaked in ginger with a head full of wine
And I thought I heard you calling from the outskirts of time,
Setting warm drowsy meadows abuzz in my brain,
Your dulcet whisper summoned me to sleep and I came
And I dreamed a celestial fury unsurpassed,
And we waited in a skyscraper made of glass
While the heavens went crimson with mortal wrath
And they cast down a funnel that loomed in our path
The sky broke open and the universe shook
With a rage so fierce that I could not look
But you sat and you watched with impossible tranquility
An ocean of composure and infallibility
And when the weight of the thunder brought me to my knees
You held both of my hands and you kept your peace
And I buried my face in your lap with closed eyes
And I thought, “What a beautiful place to die.”
But that’s when the apocalypse changed its mind
And it passed into the elsewhere and left us behind
And rainbows were born and the sun was set free
And with immaculate humility you smiled and said, “See?”
So we built a crystal highway out of nothing but our laughter
And set out in pursuit of the ever-after
There were majesties of mountains that bade us linger
In a terra carved by ancient glaciers’ fingers
I became part-starlight and you became an amazon
Somewhere in the deep azure valleys of Saskatchewan
But the coastal rainforest called us on
And we listened to the wind and we spoke to the dawn
We slept in a verdant arboreal palace
Canopied with only aurora borealis
Freedom was our work and the earth was our gold
And our neighbors were sequoias a thousand years old
Armed with only wonder as our magic wand
We looked into the heart of the great beyond
And with faith as our guardian and grace as our guide
We walked into the nothing and came out the other side
And the journey was so vivid that when I came to
I could still feel the storm and the forest and you
And even though I knew I was back in my bed
I could still smell the sky and the sea in my dreads
I could still taste the sacred and the true and the free
And I could still hear your voice when you smiled and said, “See?”