Swing Low Shy Ballad
She wants to be a clairvoyant,
A mystical Tarot for truth.
She dances whimsically in the hallway,
Under the flickering fluorescent globe.
Drapes of linen flowing from her
Following her bare footed trance.
She dreams of a marble hall
Echoing heavenly hallelujah
While she danced the crystal ball
Showed the future’s latter day
Ushered in now down the hallway
Steps steepening as the staircase descends
The slithering stench billowing in her nostrils
Forced in through the cellar door
The iron floor, she’d dance no more
Slits for windows facing north-south
The cowardly moon nowhere to see
Her only light, a single flame
A flicker symbolic of her dreams
She could decipher decadence
Of those who’s iron clad held her down
No music nor dance where allowed
“Swing low shy ballad” she cried
“A lullaby below, just a wisp of truth” (if at all)
She wants to be a clairvoyant
But her fortune is well known already
Her pleasure purée’s to veracity
As she drowns in the shallow waters
Her marble hall was up the slithering staircase
Winding to the cellar door
She only needs to knock... knock
To leave behind her shell of hope... hope
Dance around the crystal ball, free... free
But all she hears is Ad hominem... hominem
The clairvoyant locked in her shell of hope
Swing low, shy ballad
Copyright © Herb Alyètte | Year Posted 2009
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