O you were once wild and beautiful
When summer's rays reclined in your hair
And your Being blazed in valleys and hills.
O you were a force so vital and rare
When brief flashes and fragments of Grace
Pierced the warm, feathered air
And the light of love lit up your face.
When crude flesh and fiery spirit were
Wedded in deepest communal bliss
And your youth's blood morphed into roses
In the sweet Garden of Promise
That once seemed so fruitful and endless.
O you were once wild and beautiful
But now you're a ragged recluse
Degraded by the needle chill;
Lost in a twilight world of absence;
Removed from a world you once infused
With colour and art and consciousness.
Now Innocence has been badly wounded
And Despair corrupts our Sacredness.
Yet I still cling tightly to the vast scope
Of your Vision; in the spectral seas
Of prayer; in the righteous rage of hope
In plagued streets placated by prophecy
Amidst the glitter, neon and concrete;
Amidst bleached ruins of modernity.