Hay and a clean stall And ivy on a garden wall And a sign saying sold And an old coat for the bad cold I believe in you Do you believe in me? What do you want to do? Are we leaving the city? On the black road Through the gold fields While the fiends are plowed Towards what we are allowed The bridle bends in idle hands And slows your canter to a trot We mean to stop in increments But can't commit, we post and sit in impotence The harder the hit, the deeper the dent We seek our name, we seek out fame In our credentials, paned in glass Trying to master incidentals Bleach a collar, leech a dollar From our cents The longer you live, the higher the rent Beneath a pale sky Beside the red barn Below the white clouds Is all we are allowed Here, the light will seep And the scythe will reap And spirit will rend In counting toward the end In December of that year The word came down that she was here The days were shorter I was sure if she came round I'd hold my ground I can do what they alluded to A change that came to pass And spring did range, weeping grass And sleepless broke Itself upon my winter glass And I could barely breathe for seeing All the splintered light that leaked A fish is fleeting, launched in flight Unstaunched daylight, brightly bleeding Bleached the night with dawn deleting In that high sun after our good run When the spirit bends Beneath knowing it must end And that is all I want here To draw my gaunt spirit to bow Beneath what I am allowed Beneath what I am allowed