Bridegroom

Late into the summer, when I cast back my mind

on the rivers of the spring, there’s a crack in the air,

a house in the pines with a body to find

and a hole in the wall at which my heart does stare.

I was married to a child in the many joys of May

“Frankly now mister, you’ve never been a young girl,

I know you won’t get it, I know you’ll ask anyway.”

Maybe if I’d listened she’d be above the crepe myrtle.

The heart wants what it wants, it’s deceitful above all.

I longed for that house, for a bride, and for a reason

the brave man kills with a sword, and with a word kills the small

There’s a song in the air and this heart’s out of season.

You can call it whatever, call it mercy, call it evil

but our lives were over when we crossed the threshold.

For there lay a green lawn and a sky filled with diesel;

despair hits like rice, and your shoulder’s shivering cold.

It lasted a few years, while I was good to you,

now chains linked in gold, they keep up inside.

I’m gonna break out tonight, I know what to do

I’m a brave man, a man of my word, I’ll never lie.

As the lights flash with red and they flash with blue

all around this house -- the one I built for you

and in this corner where I know I’m the one

who put you down with my cold, black gun.

Now I wait in the thicket and wait in the hollows

with a belly of dread and a head full of voices,

nothing to do but meet the god of my tomorrows;

He’ll bring me to bare on all of my choices.

I’d say it to his face just like I’d say it to her mother,

“I spared her a life of boredom and frustration.”

You know, we’re all born to die, one after the other,

it’s a hard life of evil, and of constant stagnation.

There’s nothing I can do, we kill what we love,

a coward in years, and a brave man in minutes.

As the air left her throat, she cooed like a dove

call it mercy, call it evil, it’s all the same - isn’t it?

She called me good, that’s what it said in the Bible;

her heart’s cool gaze forgot -- I’m a leper not a prophet.

When Lazarus died Christ found he may not be able

to hold back tears for what’s in life and death’s pocket

For God so loved the world that He left it completely.

The bride has hung herself in her wedding dress.

For I so loved you, darling, that I killed you sweetly,

and saved you from a life of being a lepress.