In May 2022, I was visiting Paris, staying in a old hotel on rue Jacob in the 6th arr. I woke up at 3 am with this ballad almost complete in my head. I eventually fell back asleep, but when I got up for the day, the ballad was still there and I wrote it down. Oscar Wilde died less than two blocks away, so I like to think maybe his spirit inspired my muse. (original illustration by my younger daughter)
The Ballad of the Indifferent Moon
by Kim Fielding
gratias tibi, musa
Under the bright indifferent moon
In a cold November sky
We dance around the deep mill pond
My one true love and I
.
The lyrics come from my beating heart
Windswept branches play the tune
He holds me in his thin cold arms
Under the bright indifferent moon
.
My love had starlit merry eyes
His smile shone like the sun
Now he’s naught but fish-bit bones
Tho’ we’ll dance ’til the night is done
.
He gave his soul with ribbon wrapped ’round
He gave me his beating heart
I took those gifts, a greedy youth
And promised we’d never part
.
Love gave my love a stalwart heart
The courage to show he was gay
I was a coward, afraid to be seen
I pushed my true love away
.
My love drowned in the deep mill pond
On a cold November night
But greedily I kept his soul
And his heart, his love, his light
.
Yearly under the indifferent moon
Under the cold November sky
We dance around the deep mill pond
My one true love and I
.
He was so young, a springtime bloom
Now I am stooped and gray
So many years I’ve rued the choice
To push my love away
.
Tonight the moon’s bright in the deep mill pond
And in the cold November sky
I’ll join my love in the watery deep
And we’ll dance, my true love and I