Eleumeve're

I. 

Eleumeve’re, take me home 
To fair Tahiti, no more to roam 

Why can I not remember more of Eleumeve’re 
Than her olive green eyes and jet black hair 
Her bronzed skin, burnished like the bark 
Of the canoe that sat outside her father’s house 

Oft we sat on eves without fail 
To pull the wine jug and sip the ale 
And make a game of every day 
While yet the world felt so far away 

Within each other’s arms, a world renewed 
Within our hearts, two lives reviewed 
And sometimes even now I cannot see 
Beyond what I felt, how she felt for me 

There’s a reason they say for every thing 
And in that, a season, we grasp for its ring 
Like some fell star, my world destroyed 
When I lost Eleumeve’re, to the hearless void 

It was not me, nor her necessarily 
Held that star cros’t love but temporarily 
Alone, all new, each year it flew 
Until one day she told me, you- 

You might have been, but yet I felt 
Some pull from another – you still have my heart 
But not my mind, somewhere I misplaced 
Those things that others count as graced 

It was not easy to walk away 
To know, Eleumeve’re, never at my side might stay 
As I held my hopes a bit too high 
She jumped my fence, she took to the fly 

And I always walk along this shore 
Where boats tie up, where waves yet roar 
Eleumeve’re, far away, Could you never yet hear me say 
That I love you like I love the day 

The tides pull me in, they take me out 
Still I have no one to speak to, about this doubt 
Have I spent these years in vain, only to know 
I still seek that shadow of my soul 

Which found its sunshine in Eleumeve’re’s laugh 
Her chain of pearls, could but present my other half? 
I call the days back, I don’t pretend 
These dreams of her can ever end 

While yet I wait beside the sea 
Eleumeve’re, where’er you might be 


Eleumeve’re, take me home 
To fair Tahiti, no more to roam 

II. 

I stood beside our friends at ship’s gate 
My gift to her she tucked inside her bags 
The ship set sail, we friends we left 
We went where we could talk for a time 

We spoke of Eleumeve’re, how bright she be 
We thought of her so far across the sea 
Where she was going, we might not go ourselves 
The books she left us on our shelves 

Those days have flown, they are a bright summer 
Like leaves in the autumn, turned and decanted 
Our blue glass jugs emptied into our crazy nights 
While she were with us, we all had delights 

For that is how we felt her spirit 
Even so, as it flew off without us 
There could be but a gap within each of us now 
For we should fill it as ever she would have our vow 

Eternal friendship! Sister, Brother 
Waters, wines, and ales 
Herbs, smokes, spices and sails 
How should I present this to any other 

Would they not say I live in rose colored glasses 
My days of splendor wasted like the drying grasses 
The umber hills and the blue skies of that summer 
Spent wishing I could have had her number 

And then like some answered prayer 
One day she before me did appear 
What dream is this, Eleumeve’re 
Your embrace so dear, and I so wary? 

And yet it happened, so I was blessed 
It was true love, but yet so unexpected 
To ever learn that this love would not be drawn for flesh 
It could never catch gear, it could never mesh 

Those dreams she had she didn’t tell me 
And I for my part, could only sell me 
Songs which rang on the concrete street 
They turned my boots to smoke beneath my feet 

Eleumeve’re, so far away 
Don’t you know that there are some who say 
We hold our deepest dreams like silent secrets 
Yet that the world might learn them, and ever trick us 

Eleumevere, take me home 
To fair Tahiti, never more to roam 

III 

Under the southern sky, the stars turn like pinwheels 
No Polaris to guide, no Orion to abide 
The sea is still, and the waters placid 
There are no words to offer, and no waves to ride 

Within the gyre and the gimble 
The race best coursed goes to the nimble 
Fleet of foot and quick of mind 
All aye all else, far forgot behind 

Out there are fish, mad with teeth 
And demon-suckers down from the deeps 
They earn their lives by eating others 
They curl the waves of a farther shore 

I can sing, I can spin, I can weave a net like that 
Which can catch a smile at the drop of a hat 
But without that love which I never lost 
I could never hope to have crossed 

A meridian in simple time 
No famished waltz, no stocking time 
No fallow field, nor shriven farmer 
No angry hound, and no living daughter 

They played their dice on the sea wall 
Those Others who had written it like law 
I held no pattern but those stars I sailed by 
Perhaps those others had me in their mind 

When they told me I could be 
Too far behind your boat 
To catch your spindrift 

Eleumeve’re, the darkling sky 
Like any other day, will change and fade 
But yet you have held this imagination as though 
There were no other true beloved 

And the ship went out, and the ship came in 
Yet somehow I missed the cargo 
I was like a bottle on the sand 
I was a message, you held me in your hand 

Can you hear it, Eleumeve’re, where both 
These winds our ships do blow? 
Eleumeve’re take me home 
To fair Tahiti, no more to roam.