Paul McMahon - In Memoriam Lyrics

We felt it against us
When like two swift birds
Headlong over the surface of the bay
Our hovering faces, motionless, glowing
Over the cindering tide-brought wood

We knew it was in us, consumed
When like two stubborn sunflowers
Heads high, gawking the moon
And the last rage of dying suns
We folded over each other
Like two disembodied wings
Listening, eyes closed, as though
The sky were a conch

And all the summers
Have passed the same way
They hear the white waters rushing
The ink-hunt, brake-man overboard
Wagons lined with hobos
Ashes of Jacob's ladder, cows screaming
In the mist-filled pre-dawn valley
The unseen flight of wild birds
Vagabonding the western deserts
With a wide-brimmed hat
In memoriam