Ash Wednesday - There Will Be Fireworks

A gale of psalms from the chapel doors

Some trembling song stretched heavenward

And carried on the cold wild wind

Lingering in March

Steadied hand on steady glass

A toast to absent company

Bartered blood and borrowed brass

While outside sirens sing

Left at last call

Dreamed a dream by the old canal

He slept through the night

And they came and they traced him in white

On Ash Wednesday

So midnight falls still and black

As silent as that maker’s hand

That left you reeling, left you cold

When your weary world it woke

The phone dropped to the floor in the kitchen

The TV was flickering, hissing the news

Some far flung half truths

But home’s where the heart is

And home’s where the hurt is too

I left at last call

Dreamed a ghost on the 44

In amber light, O the city sleeps peaceful tonight

On Ash Wednesday