The Golden Age

Where the moon meets the sea
Floats the spectre of Italy
Pouring starlight over the sand
Stretched before you in this foreign land
And though the sun always breaks your heart
Whenever it makes the stars depart
I see constellations appear
Wherever the earth catches your tears

He came from across the globe
And traveled the passage to your soul
But now you can't even recall
The smell of his skin in the early dawn
He won your hand only to die
In a war the world was lucky to survive
And left you to watch your hair turn grey
Alone with the scar of his last name

Waltzing on clouds through cathedrals
Where the daughters of the Renaissance used to pray
Curse the cruelty of the angels
Who chain us to an ephemeral golden age

Autumn's feathered songs
Flutter among the pears and plums
Outskirting fields that extend for miles
Like the vineyards you knew as a child
But where piles of pale leaves lie
I only see your starlit eyes
Fixed on a girlhood you hold dear
As the earth catches your tears

Distant candles faintly flicker
Along the quiet waters of Rome
Where he once watched your face glimmer
As he swore to be yours 'til you grew old

Waltzing on clouds through cathedrals
Where the daughters of the Renaissance used to pray
Curse the cruelty of the angels
Who chain us to an ephemeral golden age

Waltzing on clouds through cathedrals
Where the children of the Renaissance continue to play
Curse the cruelty of the angels
Who chain us to an ephemeral golden age