The Keep

The Tower has grown dark and cold
full of little many-legged things
Forever dancing on the slimy floor
The Keep of my heart

When the walls began,
Oh! I fashioned them with small child's hands
So time drifted, and as I grew
It was no surprise that the walls did too
And I fooled the little dancer that came to play
With my child's heart in those dreary days
I'd grit my teeth and stay alone
My castle's Keep, my heart of Stone.

Four courses high, I wasn't even twenty
But I'd mined so much stone I knew there was plenty
I'd just barely started, Ten courses high!
I smiled at the world and turned twenty-five
I was trapping the dancers that came to play
With my stoney heart in those dreary days
I loved the pain, it made my life real
Love it? My God! It was all I could feel!

I turned around and turned thirty-seven
The stone of my heart was almost to heaven
So I put it down, but my heart could not smile
So I sighed and I frowned and walked alone for a while
But the weather was bad, and the trail got steep
and I kept slipping back to my Castle's keep
To the Lovers, the dancers, Still they tried!
And I had to laugh because I couldn't Cry.

This tower of mine has grown dark and cold
And the heart of my child is getting so old
The tears that I've saved can't save my life
And the pain that I loved, I've made it my wife
These stones around me are getting so high
And I am still laughing, for I cannot cry
I grit my teeth and stay alone,
My Castle's keep, my heart of stone.