I Dance (The Sword Dance)
I dance like a madman, dance like a fool,
Stomp my pattern in God’s tears in a pool,
Dance to remember, dance to forget
Try hard not to cry with my own tears of regret.
They say I am crazy, bonkers, insane,
Yet still I must dance, and swing, and careen,
A parry here, a thrust there,
My hacks and slashes dash through the air,
Enemies unseen, to all but myself,
All come alive from the books on my shelf,
If I dance fast enough maybe.
Maybe my phantom swordplay will bring her to me,
But nay, that’s not only reason, the cause,
That to my fragile sanity gives pause!
I MUST dance, I MUST fight,
I must slaughter away the pangs of the night,
Killing my loneliness, killing my despair,
Killing nothing more than my fears on the air,
I scream at the clouds, howl at the moon,
Come out and face me you miserable buffoon!
You made me this way, I know you did,
You made me act in a way that no one understood,
Fix me now, and set me aright,
Light my dark path, and turn off this night,
Still, on I must dance, again and again,
Into the heart of the proverbial lion’s den,
Give me an army of foes and a sword: that is all,
And I will cause all others to panic and fall,
I know what I want, it’s behind the glass case,
But I will never smash the glass, at least not at this pace,
So I hack and I slash and I laugh at the rain,
Drown all your sorrows in the earth’s deep dark pools.