The Final Church

In the moonlight

By the sea

In a country

In a town

Now quickly

Now slowly

Now in pain

Now in love

In different shapes

When I was young

When I was young

I used to dream

And the wind blows

And the owl sings

And dogs are driven wild

And dogs break their chains

And run through the lands

A prey to madness

With wild eyes dying

With wild eyes burning

They raise their heads

They swell their cold necks

Like a cat that's ripped its guts

Like a hungry child's breath

Like a woman about to give birth

Like a young girl singing

At the stars in the north

At the stars in the south

At the stars in the west

At the stars in the east

At the moon

At the mountains

At the rocks

At the pain

At the thief

At the snakes

Reveal their black black backs

Fresh flesh

Glazed eyes stare

From long pale human faces

We cannot satisfy the hopes

We are now dead

We are all dead

The hammer breaks the anvil

From the cleft of its hood

It was fair as morning and full of heaven dew

Then it put on darkness declined its softness

And put on th symptoms of its sickly age

It bowed its head and broke its stalk

It lost its leaves and all its beauty

Falling to weeds and unknown faces

Of man and woman

The black heritage

Of worms and serpents

Rottenness

And cold discharge

Out beauty is now so changed

My friends

By violence and secret influence

The aspect of a star and the stink of a mist

By emissions of a cloud

The meeting of a vapour

By the fall of a chariot and the stumbling at a stone

By a full meal or an empty stomach

By watching at wine or by watching at prayers

By the sun or the moon

By a heat or a cold

By sleepless nights or sleeping days

By water frozen

To the hardness of a dagger

Or water thawed into the floods of a river

By a hair or a current

By violent motion

By sitting still

Or severely

By dissolution

By God's mercy

Or God's anger

We take pains to heap up things useful to our life

And get our deaths in the purchase and the person is

Snatched away and the goods remain and all this is

The law and constitution of nature unveiled it is a

Punishment to our sins

The unalterable event of providence and the decree of

Heaven