Old Shepherd's Song

Old Shepherd's Song

Come and watch the red tide turn
And blue your eyes with the cold of the night
Say to Death, hush now, and hang your scythe
Your mouth is a shell with an empty hold on forever
Here you are safe, here you are home.

Dark is the clay in the canyonlands
Dip your lips to the water where the ghosts have all cried
A star takes a bow, fall on! hold your breath
As the sheep find new pasture
Grass brittle as glass blown in heaven
This is your wander, this is your home.

Do not look for the wink of your kindred above
Nor grasp for your mother in the red clay below
Watch for her rise! follow your umbilical cord
Then cut it. And follow a trail faint with laughter
Where I will keep you, where I will feed you

Where I will drink of you
And kiss your cheeks with my lips made of sand
Fill your mouth with my wordless stone
Where you will shelter, where'ere you wander
Where you will follow, where you are home.

Baboquivari at Sunset ~ Photos Courtesy of Steven