The Passing

歌詞

It was a bird, a petulant bird that pecked upon the window First so slowly, slowly then with urgent crescendo As if it could it finally could say what it had to say-o Its cry so muffled by the glass the structure in the way-o Mo ghrá sa'n Bás is deacair a rá 'S riamh an lá d'ag gabháil-o (siud sa chré-o) She had lain for many days, no years of indecision Drifting in and out of sleep, no words describe the prison With passion all reduced to pain in swollen joints and vision She once independent now dependent on good wishing I walked so slow so not to scare this cold bird at the window Trying the while to ascertain its variegated colors As if the seasons there had left confusion in the willows Of leaves and flowers blown apart and covered on the pillow She had said o'er and o'er that they could take her home now As if she was some other place with strangers all unknown-o Was it home to Clay Street to her childhood she would go now Closer than I would have come this bird had come much closer This bird was finally dismayed to find its own reflection Stood so starkly motionless then flew in all directions By the lines of modern thought the ancient body was consigned-o The ashes to be placed somewhere where stained glass cast its light-o Was it there it finally flew, this bird that was at the window? It looked so free in passing as if the passing opened in-o 'Twas days and days and days before I could finally hear the cry-o As if this passing the only way that I could say goodbye-o