Death

I want to hear no more talk of death

how she comes like a thief in the night

when dark eyes are shining bright

and a mirage is on the heath

I want to hear no more talk of death

how this one goes and that one stays

threading through old passion’s maze

spilling strangers on the hearth

I want to hear no more talk of death

of how she dashes the carven cup

never knowing which way is up

stabbing with a flash of mirth

I want to hear no more talk of death

her mechanisms     her stratagems     her pain

rendering all our hot love in vain

stopping the vents of our vagrant breath

I want to hear no more talk of death

how good a father he was to all

except when they found him in the hall

clasping life like a pale stillbirth

I want to hear no more talk of death

calamity     cancer    car crash     fire

life is an accidental liar

dancing it up on a demented path

I want to hear no more talk of death

the rotted bone     the red flesh wound

a song of ache to mad ears attuned

postponing the radio waves of wrath

I want to hear no more talk of death

grave-clothes     tributes     remembrances

strange unexpected deliverances 

patterns of magic     travestied birth

I want to hear no more talk of death

no epitaph     no elegy

what’s gone before is after me

smelling of incense     dripping with worth

I want to hear no more talk of death

I shall stop up my ears    dismantle my brain

expose myself to the driving rain

so long as I hear no more of death