Midnight dark in the downtown city;
The streetlight pools amber on concrete.
Footsteps are the drumbeat of the moonlit night;
The muted click against poured stone a lullaby of dreams.
Alone after dark, I'll live your dreams for you;
Nothing is beyond my reach.
In the night are all the shadows I have known,
Their shout-screaming my companion through the dark.
I can't remember who sent me here;
God or man or Devil, I am here,
Breathing my last in the night-dark city.
Friendly raven shadows follow me home.
Death has never been my enemy;
A friend and an acquaintance,
But never an end, never an obstacle.
I transcend this brief night and look outwards.
My eyes look back at you when you glance
Into a mirror -- don't fall, Alice!
It's a very long way down --
Whose face in the mirror? Mine? Yours?
Eyes dance alight with purple shadows;
No bruise for my doll, my perfect companion.
Only eyes like amethysts in a flawless face,
Twin gems that Nature never saw.
Life and Death are forever beyond me;
I'm a dreaming man, lost in the shadows
Of my heart and of your soul.
I'm walking down the night forever.
The road appears after midnight;
It's crystallized light -- so delicate --
I fear to touch it, but take the path,
Walking on heavenly glass up to the moon.
The night holds a ruby in its dark velvet folds;
Brilliant moon, a pale satellite of home.
I hear the voice of my true family,
And do as they will all down the long night.
Dawn is coming to my night-dark city,
I'll claim again a place for rest, briefly.
I am a dark man, a city man,
Seizing this night for my own services.
Strange remembered faces when he died;
Who are you and where have I gone?
Is this death again? Am I lost?
They answer no, I will return.
Only waiting times now stand
Between me and my night-lit city,
And the friendship of the dark.
The memory of fire chases me down the days.