A Silence Song

so much silence stretching above me
around me too
has it deafened you
has it closed my ears
has the silence itself brought about this rapture
between silence and sound
between the cry and the cull
if man raises one voice
i'll raise two then
one for loss
one for losing
one for death
and one for birth

he may hang bloodytorn on this tree of moss
though my grimace will cut my grin
i'll rise triumphant
i'll rise triumphing
you won't catch me
i fly unseen through the wind of the worlds
missiles cut space spearing the starlight
masking the moon
wide of the march

give me two reasons to stay here
lostlight lostlove
smudge the tracks and smother the traces
of the fires of your fear

near the
under the
beside the
beyond the flowers
then further still
the children lie in silent space
the wind shivers through
their cornburnt hair

silence immaculate
if they move from silence to sound
will the world shudder
will my heart stop
in a cave
in a maze
spring slides
through my sadness
and my winter

the stars have frozen into space
the stars have molten into space

the children wait
flowers around burnish their hair
with brazen gold and heartred rose
if i move then i shall stop
how have the sightless fallen
i shall take a knife to your heart
i'll take a knife to your heart
i'll, i'll take a knife to your, to your heart
and london bridge no long longer remains
christ's face refracted through
the sky then breaks up into
different shapes