Bess’s Dance

It started with the morning chime

 Just a greenhorn,

 shoes still clean from the kingdom side

 Pillars holding up the story,

 strong and easy in the western mind

 Change was rushed by the refrain

 Kept on dreaming of a basket,

 overflowing with grain-

 A worn red cloth woven over the cobs

 single figure of the wild plain

 Followed that mirage to its depth,

 Got close enough to understand

 The background changed from soft-hued to red

 and I had to walk in

 See the edges of the wheel,

 and the easy track it runs

 all the rest is beyond

 We create great stages where we act out

 the borders of desire

 And in the space outside my scene

 The way as both empty and beyond

 Obscured to a friend

 compassion in a listening ear

 Pan and the jester’s laughter again

 Followed that single melody

 found it easy to pretend

 Bess dancing in the shade of the willow,

 I will join him for a dance!