Esme

I can feel a difference

Today, a difference

All of us in our tents

Fearing god like a mistress

We lay on the rocks in the sun

Watching you and your mama row in

I sat up and blinked when you appeared

So pale you were nearly clear

Later I stumbled to my bed

All alone in the branches

I laid in the dark thinking about

All of my friends and their changes

And I do not know

If you know just what you have done

You are the sweetest one

I have ever laid my eyes upon

It's a beautiful town

With the rain coming down

Blackberry, rosemary

Jimmy-crack-corn

You've got the run of the place

Now that you're running around

And may kindness,

Kindness, kindness abound

In this hour of our lives

Hour of effortless plenty

How do we know which parts of our hearts want what

With such base generosity?

Taking so many photographs, so amazed!

We've never seen a baby so newlyborn

And when the bulbs do flash as bright as morning

The crowd keeps on gathering like an electric storm

The phantom of love moves among us at will

Each phantom-limb lost has got an angel

So confused like the wagging bobbed-tail of a bulldog

Kindness, kindness prevails

Kindness prevails!

Ties and rails, ties and rails fall into line bearing kindness

Where will you go, if not here?

What will you say when you write to us?

This is a world of terrible hardship everywhere

And I search for words to set you at ease

But there, in the looking-glass, a kite is soaring

Stilling my warring heart and my trembling knees

Clean as a breeze, bright as the day

All of the people gather to say

"Sweet Esme! Sweet Esme!"

Oh, oh, oh!

I believe love will always surround you

Brave as a bear with a heart rare and true

But if you are scared, if you are blue

I have prepared this small song for you:

Sweet Esme! Sweet Esme!

Oh, oh, oh!