John Crow Poem by Robert Rorabeck

John Crow, John Crow
Hair as white as winter’s snow
Your love was lost in a mist of salty seawater
That broke your heart to pieces long, long ago
And now you are but a disgrace
To the Holy Father.

Inside a darken wood
Is where one can find you,
Down a deep, dank path
Made from rotting wet earth
Far into an unearthly sticky goo
Where you skitter, skitter and skirt.

Evil does lurk inside your rotting head,
And the earth shivers with your dark thoughts.
Worms and rodents are the only companions with you
In bed,
A bed of death, decay, and a thing that rots.

You came for me an hour past midnight
And brought me to your home down deep in the earth
And told me stories of ghastly frights,
Of how you lost your love and after that the dark birth.

You brought me close and breathed into my throat.
I drank you blood and became your kin,
And then to the sea we went
Search for your love on death’s boat.

Deep we dived in the sea’s waters,
A dark blue, and found your love
All alone in a cave of crystal
All silver and hue.

She sat all alone upon a tall and sparkling throne.
She beckoned us nearer and nearer we went,
John Crow all a smile like a man gone insane,
And then she demanded respect,
So to our knees we went,
And she told me to leave
But for John Crow to remain.

With a flash I was home.
What happened to John Crow and his love
I do not know,
But I don’t wish to stay here all alone,
So come with me
And together
We’ll go looking for
John Crow.