**THE LIVING** Night held its breath over names in the stone Wings chipped white, dates eaten to bone I came through the gate with no hymn in my mouth You were already the stillness the graveyard allows **THE SCARECROW** I don’t arrive. I remain. Straw at the collar, stitch where a voice should stay Angel to my left, the lost ones below Hat cutting moonlight so the face doesn’t show **THE LIVING** You didn’t lift a hand You didn’t spend a word The tilt did the asking And I answered like I’d never heard **THE SCARECROW** You always stop where the gravel turns to hush The empty does the work if you stand still enough I was built for a field. The field became this ground Now you keep circling. So I keep the crown **BOTH** Turn with me Don’t ask the dark to be honest Angel on the left, demons in the bed One of us is dancing One of us is dressed as the dead **THE LIVING** I put my palm on twine and swear I feel a pulse I know better. Knowing never helped me once Dead-man stare sewn shut under a borrowed brim Still I keep the measure like the night belongs to him **THE SCARECROW** I let one seam open so you’ll think you won A little straw, a little rot, then I cover it again That is not confession. That is bait that looks like grace You call it almost-truth. I call it keeping you in place **BOTH** Oh— I see you / You see the stand-in Hat tilted low, stare sewn shut The mask that makes the loving work The lie that keeps the body in the yard **THE LIVING** I told my feet the gate was still an option I told my mouth this turn would be the last Then you breathed that country nothing And the last turn learned how to last **THE SCARECROW** I could end it with a look I never will A real face sends you home A covered one keeps the circle I wear the scarecrow so you’ll love what isn’t here And blame the moon instead of me **BOTH** Slow now Pine for the fiddle Stone for the drum No preacher, no choir Just the two of us becoming one wrong hymn **THE LIVING** Don’t take it off If the living eyes landed I would have to mean goodbye I need the mask more than I need the man The man would finish night. The straw lets me lie **THE SCARECROW** I won’t take it off Not kindness — architecture I hold a yard, not a heart You keep returning, so I keep the art Stitch tight. Brim mean. Dead man hid. That is the only vow I know how to keep **BRIDGE — traded, rising** **LIVING:** If I saw you plain I’d have to hate the dark **SCARECROW:** That is why the brim never lifts **LIVING:** If you loved me true you’d let me use the gate **SCARECROW:** If I let you leave, the stones go back to being only stones **LIVING:** Then we are both the trap **SCARECROW:** Then we are both the stay **BOTH:** Keep the stitch Keep the tilt Keep the angel watching Keep the demons where they lay **BREAK — almost spoken over the waltz** **THE LIVING** I came to walk through. **THE SCARECROW** You stayed to be held by a hollow. **THE LIVING** I named it dancing. **THE SCARECROW** I let you. **BOTH** Neither of us is innocent. Both of us refuse the dawn. **LAST DANCE** **THE LIVING** I lie down in the needles like the ground was my idea You do not follow. You only remain I look up at the brim like looking is a vow I say I see you. I see the costume. I stay anyway **THE SCARECROW** I stand over the dirt I already belong to Mask on, eyes gone, love doing the talking I can’t You chose the dark. I only made it easy That is as close as I come to a confession **BOTH** There you are There you stay Between the blessed and the buried Between the want and the clay Hat low Eyes gone Hand on stuffing Heel on graves The mask does the loving The living does the ache The scarecrow keeps the promise By never showing the face **OUTRO — repeat and fade the turn** In the yard Where the angel and the demons lay We don’t finish the song We just don’t walk away Turn again Turn again Don’t lift the brim Don’t use the gate One of us is dancing One of us is dressed as the dead And the night keeps the time For as long as we let it.
