I lie here alone

with thoughts in my head,

and a body that’s with me

but not with me at all.

 

And my thoughts they return 

to the days of my youth

when my body moved easy

with passion and strength.

 

Here now in those days of sweet long ago

I hear the music echo and the power notes fall,

and they fill me with life and they fill me

with hope for what is to come, as I dance to it all.

 

But now in this room alone on my bed

there is only a whisper to greet my grey head,

and no one will come to be at my side or 

bring me the music that once filled me with pride.

 

Then out of the silence that is my best friend

I hear some voices rising as if from the grave,

and the voices they sing in sweet harmony

and the music is flowing around, around me.

 

And this body so limp and filled with disease 

rises up from the bed and moves with such ease,

and begins to jump and dance to the tune,

flying up to the heavens to move with the moon.

 

I dance for the stars and I dance in the sky,

and my passion is rippling and my body is strong,

and I move with my lover held close to my heart,

with the music pounding and giving me life.

 

Then looking down at the bed that once made 

me its slave I am free at last, I am free, 

so free indeed, but then I see the bed with 

sober clear eyes and behold my still body waiting there.

 

Cold as the ocean, white as the snow,

I am looking and looking, not wanting return,

then in an instant I begin to fall, falling back,

falling down, falling onto my bed alone.

 

22/5/2019