Cuckoo Bird

He waited for her return where the cherry blossoms grow
With her face so warm like sawdust with her gentle beating soul
He searched for her everywhere for the light inside her heart
As she gave the gift of sound to a town that watched its wisdom depart

When soldiers called for a better deal she offered up her name
Down along embankments of a warm waterway
Where the air is plastered thick with wisps of heavy drainage
She gave the gift of sound to the pitiful who could not be salvaged

Now the merchant from China talks to a Russian statesman
The statesman made a promise that in a hundred years'd be forgotten
Brokering a gown for the broken in a different part of town
Still she gave the gift of sound to those whose promises went unfound

Shadows hung tattooed among the pale autumn sky
Children laughed in the evening light as they were pointlessly bribed
Soon forgot the reasons for the sound of petty squalls
She gave the gift of sound to one who had nothing and no one at all

A man lay writhing between life and death
Crying out in pain every name he could muster from his breath
In years long gone, their names played like music he remembered
As he took her gift of sound and hung the burning lights of November