Master Song

I believe that you heard your master sing When I was sick in bed I suppose that he told you everything That I keep locked away in my head Your master took you travelling Or at least that's what he said And now do you come back to bring your prison Wine and bread?

You met him at some temple Where they take your clothes at the door He was just another homeless man Just come back from the war And you wrap up his tired face in your hair And he hands you the apple core Then he touches your lips now so suddenly bare Of all the kisses some time before

And he gave you a German shepherd to walk With a collar of leather and mail And he never once made you explain or talk With all the little details Such as who had the word and who had the lock And who had you through the mail Now your love is a secret all over the block And it never stops, not even when your master fails

And he took you up in his aeroplane Which he flew without any hands And you cruised above the river of rain That drove the clouds from the sand But he kills the last and the lonely thing And he hates the angel glance He erased the final wisps of fame With a musical robin

And now I hear your master sing You kneel for him to come His body is a golden string That your body is hanging from His body is a golden string My body is going numb And now you hear your master sing Your shirt is all undone

And will you kneel beside this bed That he polished so long ago Before your master chose this bed To make my bed of snow? Your eyes are wild, your knuckles are red And you're speaking far too low Now I can't make out what your master said Before he made you go

And I think you're playing far too rough For a lady who's been to the moon I've lain by this window long enough To get used to an empty room And your love is some dust in an old man's cuff Who's tapping his foot to a tuneAnd your ties are right You want so much Let's say come back Sometimes too soon

And I loved your master perfectly And I taught him all that he knew He was starving in his own deep misery Like a man who is sure it is true And I said to him with my guarantee I could teach him something new And I taught him how he would long for me No matter what you sing No matter what you do

I believe that you heard your master sing When I was in the sick in bed I'm sure that he told you everything That I keep locked away in my head Your master did your traveling Or at least that's what he said And now do you come back to bring your prisoner One in bed