Sick with Shadows:The Mirror's Tale
When you look at him
your eyes become moats
swirling around you
In a stream barely
as wide as the boats
promising rescue.
I couldn't hear
his sirens approach
When could you?
He was a crook
with a name like Death
and he hooked you.
My eyes cracked
with tears at your sigh.
I was your mirror
your shield and your lie
Hoping you would see
a future within me
but knowing someday
you would look beyond me.
When I reflected
upon his approach.
I begged you
to see me.
But you listened only
to his bugles blow
and their shrill
cracking.
I shuttered like curious pictures
that change when someone looks.
Burning with a furious passion
unwritten in your books.
You were the Lady of Shallot
living visions I sought too.
It's not that mirrors dream their own thoughts
I'm reflecting on you.
You said it was just
your apparition that bored you
So you never noticed
how much I adored you.
I'm swept up
in a furious river
that washed
the tears away
an empty frame
stretched with curious pictures
of the day
you sailed away.
I was shattered
with tears at your side.
I was just a mirror
your guilt and your pride.
Your dance crazed the loom
that was our nest
it's web would surround you
Tangling your soft hair
in his crest
as it's colors
astound you.
When I dream of death
your lips
cease
to steam me
The crash
of a shard
of your kiss
falling cleanly.
Death freed you from
the castle where I kept
reliving my dreams
when or if I have slept
I can't even look
out a window and see true
For the sea as a gravestone
rolls constantly over you.
Your eyes cracked
with tears at my side
I was your mirror
your world was my pride.
I made you think that
it might be inside me
Hoping to keep you
close and beside me.
You are the Lady of Shallott
Living dreams that would not sleep
Trapped in a castle
where yours was the keep.
You couldn't look
out a window or see
passed dim visions
reflecting from me
Watching from angles
you prayed to be free
Your curse wouldn't see
your true beauty through me.
I'm swept up in the furious ocean
that floats by everyday.
All my life it's been that curious
potion I drink to drift away.
You were the Lady of Shallot
living the visions I brought you.
A mirror was just
a thin window beside you.
The visions I shadowed
have shattered inside me.
Now only those fragments
can reach me so deeply
as did the Lady of Shallott.
c c/g f capo 3