A Fading Dreamer

My love, I know you're far away, so far away— you know the way I fray when far: I pace beneath a fallen star, I call your name, a stray, a hound, a lantern shakes, the night draws round— a fading dreamer. Dear, my love, come back near, I'll still the curse, I'll still the stir. Dear, my love, come back near, I'll still the hearse, I'll still the cur. But if you don't, I'll still remain a name in the mouth of the rain. I no more see the Bridge-Builder— to share our heaven— now in a coven, cold and grey; you flee me at the break of day, you drown me in the sunlit street, a beaten dog beneath the heat— a fading dreamer. Dear, my love, come back near, I'll still the curse, I'll still the stir. Dear, my love, come back near, I'll burn the hearse, I'll burn the cur. But if you don't, I'll still remain a name in the mouth of the rain. Who pushed your mind inside my head? you laid a curse upon my bed, and now I fear I'll lose myself, left open like a dusty shelf, an ocean of unopened books where every ending slips its hooks— a fading dreamer. I'll hush the beast and drown my fear, I hear your footsteps, never here; the rain keeps count, the dark keeps score, I sign my name and ask for more. Dear, my love, come back near, I'll hush the beast and drown my fear. Dear, my love, come back near, I'll still the curse, I'll still the stir. But if you don't, I'll still remain a name in the mouth of the rain. And at my heel, a Faustian dog, who reads my ruin like a catalogue.