My Heart

My heart has endless secrets to keep,

I close my eyes and tuck me to sleep.

Sleep will I for an eternity and twoscore,

Troubles will haunt my mind nevermore ...

My poor little heart, so dark and cold,

Once it had hoped for someone to hold.

But what it found, chilled it to the core.

Now all it says is, "nevermore, nevermore ..."

Darkness is not necessarily a vice,

Though it makes you cold as ice.

In this world, wicked and full of fear,

'Tis foolish to shed for someone a tear ....

In this world, there is only one creed,

Worship the one for whom you have a need.

And soon the time and need is past.

And out into the shadows is he cast ...

Dark words are these, I do agree,

As I laughingly hear your furious decree,

"Cast him out into the bosom of the night,

Never again shall he see the light ..."

Why, my friend, the night was always mine,

She embraces me, happily her eyes shine,

Even in your bluster, I can smell your fear.

Is that why you don't dare come near?

Ballad of a Beast

My friends, both old and of the new mould,

Both from the shadow and the realm of gold,

To each when you became so dear,

A shard of my heart I had given to keep near.

Over the years, now I have found,

Of all the shards I had passed around,

A few were lost, a few thrown away,

A few found to be a burden on the way.

A fragment is all that is left of my dear heart,

I guard it zealously from all who would tear it apart,

And yet to you, so naive, so gay,

I grant you my life even as you unthinkingly say...

"What are you, but a beast without a heart,

A stranger, a wanderer, is this all you can grant?"

'A beast without a heart', 'tis very true,

But only because my heart bled for each one of you...