Karen, de Profundis

From out of the depths and by your beautiful hair
We pull you to our hearts
Gone from us in a sickening blaze, a frightful glare
And then the music starts.

Your voice, it overshadows and forces us to care
To gleam with tears so many years
Upon your mausoleum the little birds stare
Dumbfounded by our blackest fears.

How can we appreciate what you do from there?
Only the perfect song in a music box
How do we integrate what is surely despair?
We slip and stumble through the rocks.

Glorious Karen, saint to many everywhere!
Antidote to poisons that curdle the living
Port in a storm that is drowning all that’s fair
Your strong, smiling, gospel-pure giving.

How the days go by, then the years tear
At us with the fury of harpies at our death
At our sinking successes and failures bare
While you draw in another lost breath.

We did so want to save you from the glare
Of being the star despite your mother
Who wanted only, who did wrongly dare
To crush you for the sake of your brother.

I’ll never find your fragile, happy stare
When the world has us down, as you sang
Your charming pose on a velvety chair
All curled up like a hidden fang.

I cry to you, Karen, when night’s black bear
Growls and feeds on the weakest minute
On a clock at whose hands I over-stare
For the times I find I am in it.

Resurrect us, Karen, float us in the air
That we may soar as you once soared
That we may take the sweet, sweet music where
The soul lies crumpled, gored.

Your blessing is quiet whilst others blare
Your magic propped up for us again
That celestial wind woven by the pair:
Brother and sister – remember when?

We, too, will pass, crawl into the lair
Crawl to sleep without any dreaming
Fall to nothingness, for another spare
Will appear as the infant screaming.

I lament your horrific, spectacular share
Of life lived confused and unknown
Then I celebrate all manner of Karen and stare
At the light when utterly alone.

Long live Karen! Long live your frère!
As he continues unabated but inert
Twilight laughs at our hobbled mare
But you deliver us from hard hurt.

{end

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Click Here for the Karen/Ella medley (MP3 download)


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