Fare Thee Well

melancholia

Stones set upright in shadows are hidden

Into dark depths the weak ones are bidden

Chimes of glass dance gently in the wind

Faint messages in the night, almost, they send

 

Do you hear the music?  that hypnotic sound

Sweet haunting refrains have you securely bound

Leading you so far away

Never again to touch the day

 

Buried in deep beneath the ground

Dried and bloodied bones are found

Strange and eerie things to tell

Forgotten in the deepest well

 

Such envious beauty has faded

Claimed by a sword two-bladed

This evil was done

And now there is one

 

Stars are symbols or marvelous rapture

But talons of steel await to capture

In a bright and shining palace

Transforming into grievous malice

 

For my deeds done, shall not die

No matter how fervently I deny

The secret of the well, dry

 

Upon my gown lies a crimson stain

Ne'er to be removed by love or by rain

My heart is anchored as with a chain

And my eyes of all tears are drain

 

Then with knives my arms I scrape

Fleetingly my last breath doeth escape

Then cloth over my form shall drape

With a last drop upon my lips of grape

 

No one living my death may attend

May the fire consume me in the end

And scatter mine ashes upon the wind

 

Shall there stand beside my pyre

A loving, young and handsome squire?

 

For him, my last tears were shed

For him, my frail heart sorely bled

For him, I killed then fled

 

To be forgotten is my fate

And left beneath the ebony slate

Such I horrid event I dare

Beyond the forgiveness of any prayer

 

Such a deceptive task

His love is all I ask

Yet he left nothing but sorrow

Alone was I at the morrow

 

Faint as the images drawn in sand

My life now claimed by my own hand

Then to everyone my final words tell

Fare thee well, fare thee well.

 

copyright 1987