Sloping head bent to wind as always.
Slugging it out 'til the end, the boxer
Going over the top, in God's Gallipoli.
Set me up Joe, body lean but mind obese,
Maple angel leaves once shifted in the trees
When light was a truly wondrous thing.
But now they crackle under my feet
Like the old life's longings
Of sailors once robust
In b___ons and coats now just mud and bone
And teeth beneath me.
Grist for star dust, the bone crushing rock of ages.
Cancer took the spring from my lover and gave us forever Autumn.
No thoughtless smoke now, no blind drink.
No idle lunches dreaming of a whole 'nother world of things.
It's down to brass tacks and saline sacks,
Vincristin injections and early detections.
Take me in one swoop God don't let me dwindle.
I watched the light leave my mother's bed-sick eyes.
She's so scared--once gone, I kissed her cheek,
And the cold of her skin held on my lips.
It's hard to think, "so this is how it ends?"
Stretched out on a bed sheet,
Sorting through a wreckage of regrets.
Back in the ring now,
With eye held just high enough to see the prize.
Head bend forward at hip into wind as always.
Slugging it out 'til the end, the boxer.
Going over the top, in God's Gallipoli.
You know the thing that haunts me the most
Are all those crystalline moments,
Where adrenalin and light filled my belly and head.
And the moon winked as if to say yes.
And I ran in the cold night and sweated and it felt good.
And I could hit the nail on the head
And drive that fucker home.
Going over the top, in God's Gallipoli...