Adrienne Rich - Orion lyrics

Far back when I went zig-zagging
Through tamarack pastures
You were my genius, you
My cast-iron Viking, my helmed
Lion heart king in prison
Year later now you're young

My fierce half-brother, staring
Down from that simplified west
Your breast open, your belt dragged down
By an oldfashioned thing, a sword
The last bravado you won't give over
Though it weighs you down as you stride

And the stars in it are dim
And maybe have stopped burning
But, you burn, and I know it
As I throw back my head to take you in
An old transfusion happens again:
Divine astronomy is nothing to it

Indoors, I bruise and blender
Break faith, leave ill enough
Alone, a dead child born in the dark
Night cracks up over the chimney
Pieces of time, frozen geodes
Come showering down in the grate

A man reaches behind my eyes
And finds them empty
A woman's head turns away
From my head in the mirror
Children are dying my death
And eating crumbs of my life

Pity is not your forte
Calmly you ache up there
Pinned aloft in your crow's nest
My speechless pirate!
You take it all for granted
And when I look you back

It's with a starlike eye
Shooting it's cold and egotistical spear
Where it can do least damage
Breathe deep! No hurt, no pardon
Out here in the cold withyou
You with your back to the wall