Never To Heaven

(album: Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass - 2020)

May my eyes always stay level to the horizon
May they never gaze as high as heaven, to ask why
May I never go where angels fear to tread
So as to have to ask for answers in the sky
The whys in this lifetime I've found are inconsequential
Compared to the magic of the nowness the solution to most questions
There are no reasons

And if there are I'm wrong
But at least I won't have spent my life waiting
Looking for God in the clouds of the dawn

I'll be up early to rise though of course
But only to make you a pot of coffee

That's what I was thinking this morning Joe
That it's times like this as the marine layer lifts
Off the sea from the view of our favorite restaurant
That I pray that I may
Always keep my eyes level to your eyeline
Never downcast at the table cloth

You see, Joe
It's times like this that the marine layer lifts
Off the sea on the dock with out candle lit
That I think to myself
There are things you still don't know about me
Like sometimes I'm afraid my sadness is too big
And that one day you might have to help me handle it

But until then
May my eyes always stay level to the skyline
Assessing Long Beach's glittering new development
Never higher than the tallest building
Never to heaven or revenant
'Cause I have faith in man as strange as that seems
In times like these
And it's not just because of the warmth I've found in your
Brown eyes
It's because I believe in the goodness in me
That it's firm enough to plant a flag in
Or a
Rosebud
Or to build a new life