Kingfisher
Joanna Newsom
Whose is the hand that I will hold?
Whose is the face I will see?
Whose is the name that I will call
When I am called to meet thee?

In this life, who did you love
Beneath the drifting ashes
Beneath the sheeting banks of air
That barrenly bore our rations?

When I could speak, it was too late
Didn't you hear me calling?
Didn't you see my heart leap
Like a pup in the constant barley?

In this new life, where did you crouch
When the sky had set to boiling?
Burning within, seen from without
And your gut was a serpent, coiling

And, for the sake of that pit of snakes
For whom did you allay your shyness
And spend all your mercy
And madness, and grace
In a day, beneath the bending cypress?
It was not on principle
Show, Pro-heart, that you have got gall
A miracle:
I can bear a lot, but not that pall

I can bear a lot, but not that pall!
Kingfisher, sound the alarm
Say, "Sweet little darlin', now
Come to my arms
Tell me all about the love
You left on the farm."

He was a kind, unhurried man
With a heavy lip and a steady hand
But he loved me just like a little child;
Like a little child loves a little lamb

Thrown to the ground
By something down there;
Bitten by the bad air
While the clouds tick;
Trying to read all the signs
Preparing for when the bombs hit;
Hung from the underbelly of the earth
While the stars skid away, below
Gormless and brakeless, gravel-loose
Falling silent as gavels in the snow
I lay back and spit in my chaw
Wrapped in the long arm of the Law
Who has seen it all:
I can bear a lot, but not that pall

I can bear a lot, but not that pall!
Kingfisher, cast your fly:
Oh, Lord
It happens without even trying
When I sling a low look
From my shuttering eye

Blows rain upon the one you loved
And though you were only sparring
There's blood on the eye
Unlace the glove
Say, Honey I am not sorry

Stand here and name
The one you loved
Beneath the drifting ashes
And, in naming, rise above time
As it, flashing, passes

We came by the boatload
And were immobilized:
Worshiping volcanoes
Charting the loping skies
The tides of the earth
Left us bound, and calcified
And made as obstinate as obsidian
Unmoving, save our eyes:
Just mooning and blinking
From faces marked with coal
(Ash cooling and shrinking
Cracks loud as thunder rolling.)
I swear I know you. You know me
Where have we met before?
Tell me true:
To whose authority
Do you consign your soul?
I had a dream you came to me
Said
You shall not do me harm anymore
And with your knife
You evicted my life
From its little lighthouse
On the seashore

And I saw that my blood
Had no bounds
Spreading in a circle like an atom bomb
Soaking and felling
Everything in its path
And welling in my heart like a birdbath

It is too short —
The day we are born
We commence with our dying
Trying to serve
With the heart of a child;
Kingfisher, lie with the lion
Write the lyrics for a pop song made in 2010, titled "Kingfisher", by artist "Joanna Newsom".