Shapeshifter

(album: Inlet - 2020)

I remember the skies and the sand
I remember your face and your lovely hand
Words poured out on a dusty land
And gravity comes to us all
I feel the engines stall
Feel us start to fall

Blue over you
And lose all to you
The time expanding
And lose all ascent

A signal that no one hears
The surface blurs and the ocean nears
Sadness bursting disappears
Waves that lift us and toss
Promise made of enduring loss
You speak only of minnows and moss

Blue over me
And lose all to me
The time expanding
And lose all ascent

While you let the water in
I sleep and feel you near again
While you let the water in
I dreamt again that I couldn't swim

Finding myself past the half-life of me
Lost in the weeds, tugging at sleeves
A dreadful despair of a color that pales to describe
So taking the form of a winged butterfly
And lifting myself through a sliver of white
A lazy path to the fence row and the flowers within

Needing some speed, I became then a fawn
Feeling the dangers of the quickening dawn
I leapt over the fence and raced across the softening ground
And after some time I discovered a pool
Water was clear where the lilies were blue
I drank until full and waited to no ill effect

Seeing the sky I became then a bird
A swallow that sped through the warm thinning air
To heights unimagined, 'til loneliness took back its hold

Where is the place for what's all left of me?
Where do we keep the things we don't need?
Where is the solace promised me in voices before?

Suddenly me just here back on the land
Reaching for you and finding your hand