Nine

Night a nine of diamonds A woman lay and cries At the sister of Mercy On a Sabbath day Night a nine of diamonds As revelers commence To shiver as she bore In a babe, a radiance Brave in constant motion Wherein perfection brews Darkness as his brother Mischief as his moon Summoning beneath With his gypsy moves Yearning as the foal Shy and beautiful Every card he drew Had a different face Lingering and lost Unholy holy ghosts I tend to play them all He spoke with confidence Another kind of strange To shift in loneliness He sought not for himself The empire he would find Save the golden womb He enter in his mind We will die a littler The rogues whistling Nine blue-eyed sailors Tip their caps to him As he passes through them More vagabond than king With diamonds on his sleeves Like a harlequin