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