The Mill: A Winter Pastoral (12)
January 8 1972, graveyard shift
Song
Pursued by a question
I found a closed book
That said on its cover
Don’t open and look.
Like Eve at the apple
I gazed a long time
While the serpent of doubt
Egged me on to the crime.
I spread forth the pages
I took the sweet bite
But the morsel turned bitter
As the words came to light.
I couldn’t stop reading
Despite the hot pain
In the slash those words burned
From my eye to my brain.
I love you, they screamed
To the man sent away,
It was just for the others
That I made my display.
But I know and you know
And they know it too
All trapped in a lie
We must live to be true.