By The River

By the river sings a woman
Tied to nothing and bound to no one
The voyeur stands by shadowed boughs, dew-heavy limbs

Damp the wood burns
Windless morning
Birds are silent as a warning
And sorrow comes like hungry wolves in dead of night

It's a bad, bad habit you know

Go whether skies are cloud-heavy or the ground is
Unsteady and the haze of young pity is gone
And deal or barter your living when your sins are
Forgiven and the scales are made even again

Under white sky smoke is rising
Breath is shallow, pupils widen
And bracken dries as river flows under the ice

But it's a bad, bad habit you know

Go whether skies are cloud-heavy or the ground is
Unsteady and the haze of young pity is gone
And deal or barter your living when your sins are
Forgiven and the scales are made even again