Missing Mercy

The sun has set
The stars are gone
The darkness is complete.
With tired legs, and hollow heart
The chances all are up.
The day has cast it’s final roll
And I am missing more...

The times we made
The loving touch, burnt brilliant bright and brief.
If I had known, if I had faced
The invincible defeat
For each small piece I should have stayed
And lingered moments longer.
Somehow paid more than I had to give
And traded in my chips.
The little graces, the smallest gestures
More beautiful than all the rest
And opening deeply they marked my heart, every touch and kiss

But I should have seen.
I should have been another man, another time and a different road.
So all the moments, I now recall
Will fade and vanish with my decay
The tears I cry for memories
Will not make them real again.
Still I try, to feel it all, and hold to my soul
In every step of every inch, and each breath and place
I see you with me
And letting go there is no rescue, or salvation to redeem
There is only missing more...

So praise the gods
And curse them all
For the gifts they give, the price to pay.
The plans and schemes were theirs to shape
The choices few, oh they did abound
But came and went with fleeting chance
I could not make the way my own
And so I’m missing more...

And there you sit, there you speak
Across the table
Just a reach away
Your hands are busy with the props
Your fingers strong
Your eyes too deep
Your heart so sweet
But nothing now to keep.

Your voice and words, a lovely tone
They form the shapes, and make make the sounds
Of love and hurt, of place and time you’ve been
But I cannot reach, I cannot speak
For things now said, are simple and too neat
And I can see
And so I know
With aching bones
That it means missing more...

And all the angels
The games they set, and tricks they played
A merry dance in which, acted I a pity part of blind and mute
The lines were set
The scriptures carved
In stones and scattered heaps
They gather round
Their heads bowed low, with graven stoop.
For well they knew
When the music came to silent end
And all is done
And all is spent
And nothing more to speak
That I’d be missing more...

When night is near
And day is on its knees
I long to sleep and drift
But still there is, a little more
I hoped in heart to keep
When you are gone, and I am incomplete
I’m still missing more...

This life but one
Will not have been enough
There was more pain, I wished to seek
And carry it all, I would have done
A beast of burden, his load to bear
For now it’s clear and there is no escape
I’m bound to missing more...