The Witnesses

           Young men late in the night 
             Toss on their beds
           Their pillows do not comfort 
             Their uneasy heads,
           The lot that decides their fate 
             Is cast tomorrow, 
           One must depart and face 
             Danger and sorrow.

           Is it me? Is it me?

           Look in your heart and see: 
             There lies the answer.
           Though the heart like a clever 
             Conjuror or dancer
           Deceive you often into many 
             A curious sleight
           And motives like stowaways 
             Are found too late.

           What shall he do, whose heart 
             Chooses to depart?

             Feel his heart harden, 
           Envy the heavy birds
             At home in a garden. 
           For walk he must the empty
             Selfish journey
           Between the needless risk 
             And the endless safety.

           Will he safe and sound 
             Return to his own ground?

           Clouds and lions stand 
             Before him dangerous 
           And the hostility of dreams. 
             Oh let him honour Us
           Lest he should he ashamed 
             In the hour of crisis,
           In the valleys of corrosion 
             Tarnish his brightness.

           Who are You, whose speech 
             Sounds far out of reach?

You are the town and we are the clock.
We are the guardians of the gate in the rock.
  The Two.
On your left and on your right
In the day and in the night,
We are watching you.

Wiser not to ask just what has occurred
To them who disobeyed our word;
  To those
We were the whirlpool, we were the reef,
We were the formal nightmare, grief
And the unlucky rose.

Climb up the crane, learn the sailor's words
When the ships from the islands laden with birds
  Come in.
Tell your stories of fishing and other men's wives:
The expansive moments of constricted lives
In the lighted inn.

But do not imagine we do not know
Nor that what you hide with such care won't show
  At a glance.
Nothing is done, nothing is said,
But don't make the mistake of believing us dead:
I shouldn't dance.

We're afraid in that case you'll have a fall.
We've been watching you over the garden wall
  For hours.
The sky is darkening like a stain,
Something is going to fall like rain
And it won't be flowers.

When the green field comes off like a lid
Revealing what was much better hid:
  Unpleasant.
And look, behind you without a sound
The woods have come up and are standing round
In deadly crescent.

The bolt is sliding in its groove,
Outside the window is the black remov-
  Ers' van.
And now with sudden swift emergence
Come the woman in dark glasses and humpbacked surgeons
And the scissors man.

This might happen any day
So be careful what you say
  Or do.
Be clean, be tidy, oil the lock,
Trim the garden, wind the clock,
Remember the Two.