After Eliot

We shared the experience of being alive
And then we took some tea
We finished up and all on a whim
We talked as it was free

When we went to get the bill
The lady looked us over
She told us, 'now you stay quite still
And I'll fetch in some clover'

And all of the yellow melancholy
The world about grew stark
The only sound in all of the place
Was the singing of a lark

It sang Holly go lightly bright as the day
Fresh as the moon and stale as the hay
Cold as the window frozen with frost
You never been seen and you never been lost

And lost I was for all of the time
We never shared thereafter
Closing my books and shoeing my feet
The air blew in much darker

Floor boards they've been laughing at me
The folds of my skin are frayed
I'm the oldest man I know by now
I was the youngest yesterday

What did I lose to mourn so long
A worm in the heart has tamed me
Laying to rest in a ventricle
Stirs when I take my tea

Holly go lightly bright as the day
Fresh as the moon and stale as the hay
Cold as the window frozen with frost
You never been seen and you never been lost

I saw her once and she came upon the midday
And gave me both her hands
It seemed while I was still dreaming of the waves
That she lived a while on land

Slipping through a stream of dark
The streets laid out a way
Stayed above the level
Kept my wandering heart at bay

In the sage strands a feeling in the landlord's daily dealing
There's a turn of a twisting smile
Cheap is your time when our tea don't taste so fine
How are you, it's been a while

Holly go lightly bright as the day
Fresh as the moon and stale as the hay
Cold as the window frozen with frost
You never been seen and you never been lost

Holly go lightly bright as the day
Fresh as the moon and stale as the hay
Cold as the window frozen with frost
You never been seen and you never been lost