Pure Song of the Children

I sang the pure song of the children long ago

the pure song of the railroad led me home

I sang it for the farmer on the moon

I woke to find a robin in my shoe

I sang

the kind of song that skips along a stream

the kind that whistles in the trees

I sang

the purest lullaby

to right

to right the balance

of a fallen world

the light was in my eyes

the earth was always bound to fall

but after all the light was all

I sang

but then the song turned in on me

as I stepped up to sing the purest heart

to a crowd of ghostly youth

gathered on the Bowery floor

eyes devoid of any bloom

and in my heart I had to crawl

I cried

how I cried

the pure song of the children

the pure song of the children

the last time