Stay On My Shore - Joan Shelley

Stay on my shore, and don’t desert me

And if you go, the wind will blow you back to me

And if your boat is broken out on the rocks

It wasn’t anger but a longing

We feed the birds, syrup and seed

So they stay near, so we can see

Flashing red and blue amid the green

When the fruit has long since rotten

Rolled in the needles and wrecked our skin

Gave it all to be empty

Wrapped in leaves, wet and clinging

In reeds, so holy

We split the cord

Of cedar and holly

And lie indoors

Let the smoke do the cleaning

And sweeten our skin with the salt and a stone

There’s the pages of our story