There Will Be a Time

By Simon Joyner

On Coyote Butterfly

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There’ll be a time when the sirens shall surrender

We’ll carry ashes to the summit to see them scattered

There’ll be a time when the phone rings and I reach without a shudder

And the moon sets free the crickets to sing through the night

There will be a time

There will be a time

There’ll be a time when mourning doves fill the fountain

And wash a season’s smoke out of their wings again

There’ll be a time when our swollen eyes see all we’ve left behind

Even the sun seems like a sliver just before it climbs

But there will be a time

There will be a time

I dreamt a ghost, he led me to the water

And as he shared the sorrows that marked his brief life

He said, “Look for your reflection in the waves and be delivered

Some will drown inside a teardrop while others break against the tide

But there will be a time”

There will be a time

There’ll be a time when our demons all lie vanquished

And our battlefields of frozen blood and bone are mined

And every artifact of love is strung upon a necklace to bear witness

And pollen floats on parachute breath across the countryside

There will be a time

There will be a time