Kingfisher

[Verse 1]
Whose is the hand that I will hold?
Whose is the face I will see?
Whose is the name that I will call
When I am called to meet thee?

[Verse 2]
In this life, who did you love
Beneath the drifting ashes
Beneath the sheeting banks of air
That barrenly bore our rations?

[Verse 3]
When I could speak, it was too late
Didn't you hear me calling?
Didn't you see my heart leap
Like a pup in the constant barley?

[Verse 4]
In this new life, where did you crouch
When the sky had set to boiling?
Burning within, seen from without
And your gut was a serpent, coiling

[Verse 5]
And for the sake of that pit of snakes
For whom did you allay your shyness
And spend all your mercy and madness and grace
In a day beneath the bending cypress?

[Chorus 1]
It was not on principle
Show, pro-heart, that you have got gall
A miracle, I can bear a lot, but not that pall
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
Kingfisher, sound the alarm
Say, "Sweet little darlin', now, come to my arms
Tell me all about the love you left on the farm"

[Verse 6]
He was a kind, unhurried man
With a heavy lip and a steady hand
But he loved me just like a little child
Like a little child loves a little lamb

[Verse 7]
Thrown to the ground by something down there
Bitten by the bad air while the clouds tick
Trying to read all the signs
Preparing for when the bombs hit

[Verse 8]
Hung from the underbelly of the earth
While the stars skid away below
Gormless and brakeless, gravel-loose
Falling silent as gavels in the snow

[Chorus 2]
I lay back and spit in my chaw
Wrapped in the long arm of the law
Who has seen it all
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
I can bear a lot, but not that pall
Kingfisher, cast your fly, oh, Lord
It happens without even trying
When I sling a low look from my shuttering eye

[Verse 9]
Blows rain upon the one you loved
And though you were only sparring
There's blood on the eye, unlace the glove
Say, "Honey, I am not sorry"

[Verse 10]
Stand here and name the one you loved
Beneath the drifting ashes
And in naming, rise above time
As it, flashing, passes

[Bridge]
We came by the boatload and were immobilized
Worshiping volcanoes, charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth left us bound and calcified
And made as obstinate as obsidian, unmoving, save our eyes
Just mooning and blinking from faces marked with coal
Ash cooling and shrinking, cracks loud as thunder rolling
I swear I know you, you know me, where have we met before?
Tell me true, to whose authority do you consign your soul?

[Chorus 3]
I had a dream you came to me
Said, "You shall not do me harm anymore"
And with your knife, you evicted my life
From its little lighthouse on the seashore
And I saw that my blood had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath

[Outro]
It is too short, the day we are born
We commence with our dying
Trying to serve with the heart of a child
Kingfisher, lie with the lion