Where Have I Been
-J. Burridge

I.
Where have you been and,
Where did you go?
What have you seen and,
What do you know?

What have you gained and,
What did you lose?
What do you have contained?
And what do you choose?

I came from the land of the pine tree
Where winds race and tangle with the sea
Just wanted to start again,
Just wanted them to know me.

I didn’t go anywhere
I didn’t learn anything
I wasn’t in any somewhere
I wasn’t something

I live in the edge of the library
Where tales race and tangle with memory
Just wanted to start again,
Just wanted them to know me.

I long for the haunted music, really
Where truths race, race and tangle with a key
Just wanted to start again,
Just wanted them to know me.

II.
It was a dark night when the brass light came
With a thousand hurts to each letter of her name
She was talking to me
___and I didn’t expect her to
I wanted to help her
___but I didn’t know what I could do

______The crucifix says:
My friends are my siblings
My sibling is my friend
There’s a circle that connects us all
A circle with no end

Once I saw this
___what I had was no longer enough
I had to change my journey
___no matter how tough
There’s no use trying to forget what you are
While there’s blood running in you you’re not a mime guitar

You’re a person and you’re a part of that circle.

III.
I didn’t go anywhere
I didn’t learn anything
I wasn’t in any somewhere
I wasn’t something

Not an ode, just a desperate plea
Not someone who matters, it’s just me

It hurts to see you fall and crawl
Break your back against the wall

I don’t know where you are now
I used to watch you somehow

The stars call you, bicker, fight
Argue long through the night

In the past’s bare plains
All I could give where my old chains

Here’s a wonder below the sky
Glittering mysteries for the eye

The sea’s water blue bestows
A cure, pure through all it flows

Coral lies, the truth is hidden
It will move if it is bidden

Princess of power, sorceress of the sea
That’s all they can think to call me

Pretty as a picture, clear, crystal hue
Bare but beautiful, enchanting blue

Waves will wash weariness away
Restore the soul for the light of day

A brief moment beneath the storm
Terribly safe in the water’s warm

Precious and wide, still it bounds
Not all ears may hear the sounds

Just for a moment you may come down
Any longer and you shall drown

Listen a while and you will heal
The sores of darkness peal

Diffusing, dispersing and swollen
Among other evil the sea has stolen

Hush, hush, the sound of waves
Echo on like roaming slaves

Quiet, quiet, they don’t own you
Go wherever you need to

Before you do, pause, will you pause
I’ll show you what it is to hear beneath the roars

I’m not special, I’m just stuck
Doing what I can with all this muck

Though I have no words to speak
It’s the same thing that we seek

Angel, I was once an angel too
I used to be up there with you

Let me give you what I have found
A little pearl underground

Then you really have to go
To the world that you know

Lift your wings. You can fly
You do not deserve to die!

I’ll think of you, my dear friend
I’ll wait here where I’m bound
I’ll wait forever if I have to
If you ever need me
I’ll be waiting here