Jim O’Rourke
Blood Red Bird
I was not woken by the rooster
Nor by the crow's tough song
But the midnight cry of a blood red bird brought this, this sleeplessness on

Threw open the window
Moonlight on a black garden of thorns
And the cool wind on my sweat
What cries home, where cries from
A blood red bird lies in the woods
Weeping into dead leaves
With wing torn and jutting bone
What hand bent it to bust, to be useless
What hand I could have with two fingers

A blood red bird, a blood red bird
A blood red bird, a blood red bird

We can continually sink into each other
Just deep enough to rip out a bit more flesh when we move away
A scarf of skin trailing out behind
Like an arrow, I was only passing through

A blood red bird, a blood red bird
A blood red bird, a blood red bird
A blood red bird, a blood red bird
A blood red bird, a blood red bird