All Souls Hill

I remember the day the games began
and the hills themselves crackled and sang
and news was brought by stone and water
of wind and her daughter

and a child was dancing under the sky
with gods for companions, I saw with my eye
dryads and naiads and all their clan
in the company of Pan

Call it strange: we live, we die
All may change in the wink of an eye

And I recall your dread of the gathering clouds
the way you recoiled
from the cape of the crowd
when the shouts and the rage
and the sudden fear failed to disappear

yet the touch of your hair
as it brushed my cheek
and you telling me no, don't sing, don't speak
and your skin so warm in the dark alive night
and the stars bright

Call it strange...

I remember your face
in the broken black time
in the wreck of the world
when love was a crime
a monstrous lie told by a charlatan choir
and a man on fire

Then the bodies burned and the cities bled
and the courthouse fell and innocence fled
when into our minds, unbidden, unsought
came the Great Thought

It dropped into your heart
where the lover is found
and there it took root,
and there was it crowned
and you and I stood on All Soul's Hill
breathing still

Call it strange...