Sundial (Music and Lyrics - Ed McGee)
I've been a slave to the nighttime
and I've always been moved by the moon,
and I've seen a million more midnights
than I've ever seen noon.
So I balked when she beckoned,
said that's just never been my thing,
to stand in that sunlight
in the middle of the ring.
But she took me through the forest,
so deep I couldn't see the sky,
until I wondered was she crazy,
until I figured so was I.
Then alas we reached the meadow
and she said, ‘here's where you must stand,’
and pointed to a small space
full of sparkles in the sand.
The sun still shines on me
But much time has passed
So how to make sense
Of this shadow I cast?
And what good’s a gnomon
By the light of the moon
When I can’t see your face
In these rubies and runes?
I stood there till the morning,
I stood there well into the day,
and soon I saw the sundial
and the part I'd come to play.
My shadow slid from one side,
passing the symbols in the arc.
I squinted at my shadow
until it slipped into the dark.
My shadow fell on letters
from some language lost and gone,
my shadow fell on gemstones
no human hands had laid upon.
I struggled for the meaning,
I asked for clues until she cried.
She said, ‘the sundial is just you,
the sun, and where your shadow slides.’
The sun still shines on me
But much time has passed
So how to make sense
Of this shadow I cast?
And what good’s a sundial
By the light of the moon
If I can’t see your face
In these rubies and runes?
She's been gone so very long now
and I'm still standing in that space.
Where once were diamonds at my feet,
now splinters took their place.
Every day my shadow swings
slowly 'round the cryptic arc,
searching for some meaning or
at least her face there in the dark.
