(quatrain taken from 'Diamonds and Rust', by Joan Baez) Well I'll be damned Here comes your ghost again But that's not unusual...it's just that the moon is full And you happened to call Is it only two years past? I'd swear it's been much more But I remember just one November And everything after is gone Lost in the year's last veil, always soft to part No thorn words struck, no cold door slammed Like a street scene - scarf and shawl I sing 'Qui êtes-vous, belle dame?' Having sworn never again - here I now am Well I'll be damned With those last words to a nightingale Crushed velvet twilight starts to fall As though somebody cried 'Love blinds its domain' I shut my eyes to make sure I caught a glimpse serene, a dream of you, once well known Who spoke of dark romance, of love arcane Enchantment, haunting song Bound and still in awe, enthralled with you to blame Eyes closed all in vain - Here comes your ghost again Storm of emerald. You stare, ever irresistible into me Then from this deep, grave mattress vein I rise like an uncertain sun, slow spindle Thin black silhouette of gallows frame Yet again in dead, round candle's faint light The diva wind brings her lament Blood-chill iron voice to hail A queen you seem, proud you reign Where I lay in that spectred aisle's pull But that's not unusual...it's just that the moon is full And you haven't visited for a while I still think you're beautiful Though I never was More than mortal mundane Like a shivered dart fresh from water's skin Lying sunk in bedspread sprawl In the company of a broken mirror I was going to sit here this December in disdain Just drink, and think of nothing at all And you happened to call