Bathsheba, or, how i am like david and my sins are the stars in the sky.

I dream't that in the darkest hours of the night
-when, quietly, the city lay asleep,
and from the chimneys began to creep
the smoke of fires warming dutifully this winter repose,

And inside homes, aligned in rows, beneath
my royal perch high upon the wall,
a gentle people, known to me as subjects
submit to rhyme and rule by the gnashing of their teeth.

-I saw the stars begin to fall
like impassioned arrows from Cupid's bow,
and, as if strung tightly to the moon, brought low
the sky and fell upon the earth.

And as I looked, the place where from i watched
lit up and all around was bathed in blinding light:
the darkness of the night was made a gleaming white.
To my knees i fell and wept.

For there are places far away upon which I've
left a mark. Ghastly ghosts they rise up from the
battles i began, battle my undoing: brave
men fell, and lovers wept from evils I've contrived

In cowardice. My kingdom is falling, my family failing
for the path I've walked is redeemed alone by judgment;
so wayward were its steps there exists no atonement
save death: slaughter a ram, I'll slaughter your heart.

I awoke from dream to the sound of tears. Then it died.
Near the cradle she lay, in her arms lay my child,
She saw me and stood, she wiped her eyes and her pain
for the boy had been sick, but no more would he cry.

My sin was this pain, my sin was her pain,
my sin was the boy, my sin was his death,
my sin meant so little, my sin meant so much;
and in my failure my lusts cost great gain.

The night of the death, when the city was quiet
and laid to rest were the worries
of a king, the heart of a sinner
lep't up in sorrow and the moon and the stars
and the sky fell upon the earth and I wept
as all around was bathed in blinding
light.