Lily – Bill Callahan

I started writing your death song
Long before you were gone
You could’ve had a life
Not under my pen

Eyes turned to ice, when pulse was slowed
Ice turned to tears, when we drew close
Like the trees that protect the fawn
When mother is gone

I wanted to put on your favourite song
A gift still sealed, thirty years on

You showed me middle C
And how you wept inside
Crying like a cold apple cries

I held the elevator for your soul
You give your body back, when you go

The Gurney wheel screamed all down the hall
Just like a seagull screaming down the hall

The medium said, you were sticking around halfway
To make sure my boy was okay

Which the roots?
Which the tree?
Which the pond?
Which the lily?

Cast them to the wind
And ride the wind, ride the wind, ride
Cast them to the wind
And ride the wind, with the wind you’ll ride