Audio of the original song incarnation entitled “Roam” with its lyrics in italics infused with a metaphysical alter ego voice unravelling a layered story in bold

[audio:https://midwayjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/07-Roam-1.mp3]

 

Gypsy roses growing in the wild where I roam

growing round the waterfall 

where the rain has carried my soul

 

In body I bury her water, I dig beneath jagged rocks and search for bones I can rattle and claim as kin, bones sympathetic as sand, like mother, bones that soothe when water rushes over.

 

tangled in clusters, sweeping fields 

little patches of paradise 

making weak ones yield

 

I trip to the heat of my own heartbeat, I see through shattered glass, piercing perfect memory, my eyes go drifting back – a face I can’t remember, a mound of rushing jewels, unborn seeds I breathe in through, I seek her hand and crown her truth.

 

and I am bold as gypsy roses, my blood runs red as gypsy roses

 

I stain the grass and life perceives me a perfect heart shaped tear, I fall like silver platinum wind slithering shaking slandering sin, mercy, mercy, forget me not—don’t pluck the rose or burn the watts.

 

There’s music in their petals 

dance in their thorns 

echoes of tambourines are heard 

as they fall out of form

 

As a bell I tremble in atmosphere, as I melt, I wrestle my own veneer. “But you are pretty,” she said, “and I need you to grow strong.”

 

and I am bold as gypsy roses, my blood runs red as gypsy roses

 

Smoke unfurls from deep guttural earth. Her vein is my emotion, her breath, my reform. “It’s the water,” she said, “that brings me my calm.”

 

Been tread and trampled on 

splintered by the wheels of long 

caravans that never cease 

to ride out storms and cool the beast

 

As I dug in the dirt my hands blistered twilight, whispered starlight, whispered gold.

 

and I am bold as gypsy roses, my blood runs red as gypsy roses