White Shawl

She wore a white shawl
She wore a grass veil
Chilled wind, white lips
Ribbons of plaster strips
Black hair tied up, held back with string
Visions and shreds and rips and slings
Teach these souls to fly she said
And make these spirits re-appear
Its getting dark
I’ve got no time to squander
Sipping juices at leisure in this garden of pleasure you have
here
Exit stage right, latter that night
Through the house of death she flew
Along white corridors
And lived by a miracle
She said 'I've the soul of a flea'
All fleas inhabited by the souls of drowning men
Hear their tiny cries
Blind to remorse
Insensitive to excess
And bound to repeat
They’ve fallen from grace
Again and again and again, so she said
Falsifiers, deserters, Jack-in-the-box perjurers
I can name them all
They’ve had me all, against the wall.