Watergate

Lyrics

My lord has asked a ballad of my hand
While all the velvet gallery looks on
I must be careful where the verses stand
Before the favor of the room is gone
I will not name the shadow in the arch
Nor speak of how the breathless vessel glides
I sing of timber seasoned in the March
And how the joining welcomes in the tides

The watergate stands waiting for the moon
Where the silver current swells against the stone
I pitch the allegory into tune
And leave the hidden architecture alone
It is merely iron hinge and heavy wood
To keep the flooding river from the floor
I would name the secret passage if I could
But I must bow and praise the heavy door

A sudden fever stutters in my mouth
Before my mind can substitute the sound
To speak it plainly is to forfeit youth
Where all the holy silences are bound
You drop your gaze and gently tap your fan
You hear the rushing water in the rhyme
I play the very reverent, pious man
Who bides his hour upon the river's time

Six steps of Portland ashlar to the dark
Where the current slips the boundary of the green
The Archbishop is nodding at the mark
He thinks I sing of everything I mean

For the watergate stands waiting for the moon
Where the silver current swells against the stone
I pitch the allegory into tune
And leave the hidden architecture alone
It is merely iron hinge and heavy wood
To keep the flooding river from the floor
I would name the secret passage if I could
But I must bow and praise the heavy door

You know the lock.
You know the key.
I keep the quiet treaty with the sea.
We praise the stone, we save our state.
I watch the water.
And I wait.