The Cardinal

The horizon opens slowly a snowy eye.
The cell phone sleeps beside the bedroom window.
From this dreamless city, no reply.
Just a creeping cardinal beneath the naked willow.

Bird of crimson, bring you any news?
Will you sing in answer to my love?
I am your martyr if you still refuse;
You can paint your children with my blood.

Lost in longing, displaced in aimless passion
This flash of life, this rose of pale December
Finds me blindly caged in my distraction
Still my shivering heart aches to remember
God of scarlet, son of starlit space,
With your fire, with your soul of sky,
Will you let fall a shadow, just a shadow of your grace?
I get no signal from these satellites.

Bird of winter, I softly sing for you.
If you’ll please reply, Cardinal, let me fly.
away with you

The horizon opens slowly a ghostly eye.
The cardinal creeps beneath the naked willow.
From this dreamless city, still no reply.
I press my breath against the frozen window.
I press my breath against the frozen window.

My desire—purified by silence—
May annihilate us both if I
Step out into the air to sing for you.
Step out into the air to sing for you.

 

Words and music by Adam Hummell. Copyright 2015.