Mais, dat sun, he ain’t even thinkin’ ’bout risin’ good yet. Just dat grey light, sticky sweet like swamp fog, thick in de air. Me, I’m standin’ dere, where de dew kissin’ de ground cold, My boots sinkin’ just a little in de soft, damp earth, I swear. An’ right dere, in front of me, dere’s a hole. Not a fresh-dug hole, non, not exactly. But an empty place, deep and dark, whisperin’ somethin’ old, Like de maw of de bayou, swallowin’ all dat don’ even belong, see. Mais, dis ain’t water, cher. Dis is de dark speakin’ to my soul.
Dat’s where she went, ain’t it? Or where I feel I’m goin’ slow. De dirt around it, he look like he breathin’, pullin’ me down gentle. It ain’t no peaceful sleep I’m seein’ in dat empty place, non. It’s de long quiet, de cold dat don’ ever let go, dat bitter sentinel. It’s de final curtain fallin’, before de play even start to show. De first bird, he singin’ a song, but it sound like a lie to me. Tryna tell me de day gon’ come, de light gon’ chase de night high. But dis pit in front of me, she swallowin’ dat light too, you see. Every promise, every dream, every reason why. She jus’ openin’ wider, dat grave, for all to be.
Every burden, every sorrow, de tears I ain’t got left to cry. It all leadin’ me to look at dis dark, deep inside my own poor head. My own heart, he pumpin’ mud, tired from de years gone by. Dis ain’t just de ground, cher. Dis is what’s left when all done been said. It’s de memory of livin’, waitin’ to die. De sun, he finally peekin’ red like a bruise on de broken sky. But dis maw of de grave, she jus’ openin’ wider, much too wide for my eye. An’ I just standin’ dere, waitin’ for de last breath, for de last, lonely sigh. Yeah, lookin’ straight in, an’ she lookin’ back, like she understand why. She lookin’ back at me, an’ I know I ain’t got nowhere else to fly.
