There’s a wrinkle in the water
where we laid our first daughter
And I think the wind blows so sweetly there
Over there
And the windows and the cinders
And the willows in the timbers
The infernal rattling of the rain
still remains
“But I” said the bachelor to the bride
“Am not waiting for tonight.
No, I will box your ears
and leave you here stripped bare.”
Hear the corncrakes and the deerhooves
And the sleet rain on the slate roof
A medallion locked inside her hand
in her hand
And his fingers are they telling
of the barren of her belly
And his callouses cure her furrowed brow
even now
“But I,” said the bachelor to the bride
“am not waiting for tonight.
No, I will box your ears
and leave you here stripped bare.”
“But I,” said the bachelor to the bride
“am not waiting for tonight.
No, I will box your ears
and take your tears
and leave you, leave you here
stripped bare.”