Fare Thee Well

(album: Swamp Ophelia - 1994)

Fare thee well my bright star
I watched your taillights blaze into nothingness
but you were long gone before I ever got to you before you blazed past this address
and now I think of having loved and having lost you never know what it's like to never love
who can say what's better and my heart's become the cost
a mere token of a brighter jewel sent from above

fare thee well my bright star
the vanity of youth the color of your eyes
maybe if I'd fanned the blazing fire of your day to day
or if I'd been older I'd been wise
too thick the heat of those long summer evenings
for a cool evening I began to yearn
but you could only feed upon the things which feed a fire
waiting to see if I would burn

fare thee well my bright star
it was a brief brilliant miracle dive
that which I looked up to and I clung to for dear life
had to burn itself up just to make itself alive
I caught you then in your moment of glory
your last dramatic scene against a night sky stage
with a memory so clear it's as if you're still before me
my once in a lifetime star of an age

so fare thee well my bright star
last night the tongues of fire circled me around
this strange season of pain will come to pass
when the healing hands of autumn cool me down