THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL    

I revisit a past
I can hardly recall
The details escape me
Was I ever there at all?

My powers desert me
The truth is not clear
As it seemed when
I first came here   

All is insubstantial
Written on air
Yet it seems so real
It seems unfair

The scene is so gay
And so brightly lit
I see it before me
But I can’t touch it 

Time keeps on moving
So people say
Though I’m certain
It ain’t really that way

The kingdom of the mind
The empire of soul
Stand unchanging
And beyond control 

The temple of reason
And the theater of the skull
Each in its season
Is wonderful

Still, full disclosure
The whirlwind reaps
My composure
As midnight creeps 

Like a knife in the water
Bright but unseen
Whether before me
Or in dreams

Can’t stand what I know
And I fear what I don’t  
I should deal with my fears
But I probably won’t   

Still the past is before me
Like a pyramid
Unmoving witness
To what I did

Oh the powers of confession
Cannot prevail
For the unrepentant
They’re to no avail 

I feel remorse if not horror
For all I done
In the midnight hour
Beneath the ceaseless sun

Yet it helps no soul living
Nor among dead
Whose conversations
Fill my weary head   

Life is for the living
So the church bells say
You just gotta live in
A whole new way  

Still there’s no retribution
Though karma guarantees
To souls in confusion
Fate that’s never free 

Yet the dank luncheonette
Where the mill men ate
Knockwurst and potato
On plastic pink plates

Suggests despite shadow
A prescient gleam
Signaling rapture
In the transient stream 

And so now in parting
Seeking refuge
I salute you comrades
With these lonesome blues

As the Midnight Special
Speeds without cease
May you transcend sorrow
And at last know peace

Let The Midnight Special
Shine its light on me
Let The Midnight Special
Shine its light on me