The Etruscan Shepherd

I've got a death bone in my flute
The machinery of the salute
Said the Etruscan shepherd
I speak the language of the birds
But I won't repeat the things I've heard
And the lamb lies down with the leopard

Let the phallus mark my route
With a lingam stone and a twin-head flute
Said the Etruscan shepherd

We're more alive here in our tombs
Than you people in your rooms
And the lamb lies down with the leopard

We make love at the chariot race
Theopompus of Chios says
And I'm the Etruscan shepherd
Little birds are little girls
That fly like augurs through the world
And the lamb lies down with the leopard

The women go with anyone at the tomb of Triclinium
Said the Etruscan shepherd
The black-faced lion lies with the deer
The cat with the dove and the fawn with the steer
And the lamb doth lie with the leopard

Lightning's not the collision of clouds
The clouds collide when the lightning allows
Said the Etruscan shepherd
Let us row to Elba's shore
Where the copperhead people mine their ore
And the lamb lies down with the leopard

If you need me I'll be whitening bones
Up beside the lingam stones
Said the Etruscan shepherd
Up on the hillside with my flute
Coaxing budding from the shoots
And the lamb lies down with the leopard

Naked through the universe
Dive in the sea to quench your thirst
Said the Etruscan shepherd
Death is a friend to the living ones
The hidden lining in darkness shines
And the lamb lies down with the leopard