Shiny Bells and Shallow Depths

PART I There’s a stain upon the windowsill; A weep in the call of the whippoorwill; There’s a cross and commemorative flowers Where a rusted sun dial slowly slays the hours. There’s a stagnant pond with dragonflies Where they flit and whisper and come and go. Here I sit and I chafe at my shiny cat’s eyes, And still my little girl will not come home. PART II “Come,” the water called to me, With shiny bells and shallow depths. The water summoned me as I slept. “This way,” the water whispered quietly. Stealing my dreams from my bed; The water made a map of lights in my head. “Come in,” the water gurgled sweetly. And there was sugar coated on the shore Even closing my eyes, I could not ignore. “Hello darling,” said the water, As it closed in about my mouth and eyes, I live inside the water and I am the water’s bride. PART III I once loved a girl who lived down by the stream With soiled ribbons and paper crowns, we’d daydream And we tried to figure out why lips touch But for all our research, we never found much But she’s gone now She was stolen, she stole away in the night How she fell in love with the firefly light And drowned she came in, drowned she came up Death or life, she was drowning in water or blood So she’s gone now The girl I once loved, she’s still there by the stream But is she mortal or sprite or holy entity? Regardless, she lingers, singing in bliss A spirit unseeing, she cannot feel my kiss She is gone now PART IV There’s a specter by the river, in the quiet of the gloaming She’s oblivious and wordless, inaudibly roaming Darling, stay away from the banks by the water In sorrow ever lies the widow’s daughter Drowned, they say, so they say By the bend along the way Where the fireflies spell out tricky lies And they lead you into paradise Don’t go wading in that rivulet Or that impish girl will get you yet She’ll catch you quick and won’t let go Her hands are iron in the water’s ebb and flow In the gloaming, you can find her With spider silk, you can bind her But never follow her cunning lights By the stream bed, in the twilight