THE SPACE UNDER THE WINDOW

The space upon your pillow holds your head
It sleeps in wrinkled rivers in your bed
These rivers flowing through the empty space
Meander down their valleys to a sea—
So down a whirlpool the sheets unlace
And fall as rain upon a willow tree

The willow's roots search through the dampened ground
And deep below tell no one what they've found
And in the willow's store of worms and bone
And lost among the bottles, coins, and all
A tendril of a root has found some stone
And through a crack within, it finds a hall

For in this hall of stone there lies a sword
That holds the secrets of the souls it gored
The silver of the blade shines through the blood
And lights the passage with its ancient gleam—
And water drips through cracks and turns to mud
When dust upon the floor meets with the stream.

The muddy stream flows down the marbled floor
Far down the cavern till it finds a door
And crawls into a room that once was known
By all the world that listened to a king
(Whose skeleton still sits upon a throne
And on his whitened hand is worn a ring)

The ring is made of gold and ivory
And shows a picture of the willow tree
The dwarves that made the ring are ever gone
And never told the king that magic lay
Inside the scene that one might gaze upon
As this king gazes, since his dying day

For futures lie within this magic ring
(And as you see, so sees the buried king)
And looking on the king there is a cat
Who somehow found his way into this tomb
His yellow slowly blinking eyes stare at
The king who sits amid majestic gloom

A cat may look upon a king ye know
And as the saying keeps, he deems it so
The cat is dark as blackened candle wicks
His eyes are blazing like the candles' flame
Ignoring death, he casually licks,
And though no soul has told, you know his name

For every now and then this cat gets bored
And travels down the hallway past the sword
And through a rusted gate, and grassy fields,
Beyond the willow, over many hills

And so within your house your dreaming yields:—
An empty space beneath your window fills

JWC (for Iggy)