Standard (EADGBE)

Mercy me, the night is long.

Take my pen, to write you this song.

Lord: is it harder to carry on,

or to know when you are done?

All my life, I've felt as though

I'm inside a beautiful memory,

 Replaying

 with the sound turned down low.

Long-life, show your face.

Slow-heart, curb your taste.

Smoke me out of my hiding place.

Long-life, state your case.

What in the world are we waiting for—

building glowing cities along the shore,

where the wind batters in,

baiting my kin like a matador?

So much value, placed upon

what lies just beyond our plans:

waving my handkerchief,

running along, till the end of the sand.

Long-life, speak your name.

I'm so tired of the guessing game.

But, something is moving,

just out of frame:

Slow-heart,

brace and aim.

Breaching slowly, across the sea,

one mast—

 a flash, like the stinger of a bee—

to take you away,

 a swarming fleet is gonna take you

from me.

 The universe is getting loose:

sodden spread,

from some leaden disuse,

rushing, unhinged,

 toward diminishing lights,

like a headless caboose.

I'll wait for you,

alongside the ocean,

and make do

 with my no-skin.

 But then, Long-life,

 will you let me in?

 And then, Slow-heart,

 are you gonna know him?

Long-life, speak your name.

I wait, while I decry the wait.

And when I die, may I relate:

Slow heart, congregate.

 To leave your home, and your family,

for some distortion of property?

 Well, darling, I can't go.

 But you may stay

here, with me.