Faust

I walk the halls of morning Where I am barely borne A jester at the footstool Amusing and forsworn Your servant in the study Your doctor of the dust He gnaws the stars for answers And calls his hunger trust Give him to me — one lifetime One leash of my design A wager, then — the scholar's soul Against a single hour When he begs the moment: stay — He's mine, and mine devours Man errs as long as he strives — Then let him strive with me A wager, then — and done, and sealed The court has turned away The dust is on the table now And dust is where we play

I have read the four faculties hollow I have burned through the candles of proof And I stand where I stood as a student Under one more indifferent roof No dog would endure what I know now — That knowing is counting the bars I traded my springtime for volumes And the volumes know nothing of stars There is one door the learned may open One draught that concludes every page All knowledge, and no light All ladders, and no sky Lift the cup of quiet And put the question by Bells — from the town of my boyhood Not belief — but the boy believing The cup goes down. The morning comes. And I am still here, grieving All knowledge, and no light All ladders, and no sky The bells have bought me one more dawn They never tell me why

Something padded through my doorway In the shape of a shadow's dog Now it stretches by the fire And the fire's gone to fog Forgive the modest costume The scholar's gown, the bow You called across the darkness The darkness answers now Name yourself, thing of smoke A part of that great power: that always wills the evil — and always works the good Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint! The spirit that denies All that rises begs for ruin All born deserves to die I am not your enemy, doctor I am the itch inside the vow The no beneath your every yes — And you are lonely now Ich bin der Geist, der stets verneint! The spirit that denies Say nothing — I already heard The hunger in your eyes

Service for service, spirit Your leash in this world — mine And mine in the next, if ever I beg the clock: stop time Agreed — and cheaply, doctor I'll pour you every wine And when one drop contents you The vintage will be mine Sign. With ink. With blood — blood is a very special juice. Verweile doch! Du bist so schön — Say it to one hour Verweile doch! Du bist so schön — I never will. Devour If ever I lie on a bed of ease and call the moment kind — Then let that moment close the account Done. Signed. Verweile doch! Du bist so schön — The words that end the play One beautiful eternal now — And night collects the day

Welcome to the kitchen Where the decades come apart The stove is stoked with folly And the cook has no heart The circle does its nonsense The numbers eat their tails Believe the brew, not the arithmetic — Faith is what prevails What burns in the mirror's corner — what face is forming there Drink, doctor! Down the decades Thirty winters in one swallow And with this fire in your veins Every woman wears her face — and you will follow The draught, the draught — the young blood's bargain Old eyes in a burning skin The mirror shut its beauty But beauty's now within

She crossed the square at vespers With downcast honest eyes And every book I ever burned through Turned to ash and flies (Fourteen, pious, and poor — how convenient) I have argued with the cosmos I have bargained with the pit And a girl with bread and hymnal Unravels all of it Gretchen — the world grown simple Gretchen — the noise gone still If heaven fits inside a name Then hell can have its will (It can. It shall. It's in the contract) Her room, her air, her order Her poverty like light I am too old inside this young blood And nothing here is right Gretchen — the world grown simple Gretchen — the wound to be Whatever stays this beautiful Will say the words for me

A vial for her mother Three drops for dreamless rest The sleep ran deeper than the dose The candle failed the test And here's the soldier brother With honor's rusty sword Crying whore across the market At the girl that you adored Draw, doctor — I'll do the fencing God forgive the hand He won't. Lunge. Steel in the street at midnight The Devil on the wrist A brother in the gutter Adding sister to the list Gretchen — from your own blood, hear it: The town will say it soon enough — You started with one heaven And you'll finish in the rough Steel in the street at midnight The watchman's horn behind Run, doctor — leave her kneeling With the dying and the blind

Up the granite staircase Where the wind goes mad in choirs Every hollow of the mountain Wears a crown of fires Walpurgisnacht! The summit's burning Walpurgisnacht! The valley's blind Dance the guilt out of the body Leave the girl behind Wine from nowhere, hands from everywhere The mountain has no floor I almost can't remember What I climbed up here for A pale girl in the revel Standing still as stone A red thread at her throat, the width Of an axe-blade — and alone Walpurgisnacht! — Ignore the omen Walpurgisnacht! — The fires climb Her image will not leave my eyes Dance, doctor. Borrowed time

Stone, straw, and a chain's arithmetic A voice behind the door Singing half a cradle song To no one, to the floor She takes my hands like strangers' Then knows them — and goes white These hands, she says, these same two hands — And gives them back to night The horses stand, the stars are dimming Come — the door is willing She will not run with murder She will not flee with me Judgment day is kinder Than one more night of free Sie ist gerichtet — Dawn is in the corridor The iron does its part And two notes of my stolen name Go through me like a dart

The court of dawn is seated The sentence wears her name Sie ist gerichtet — judged and ended File her under shame ...gerettet. Saved. The stone room filled with morning And morning wasn't mine Come away, my doctor — the account is running still Every road from this cell is downhill There are countries, thrones, and spirits — there is Helen yet to see There is nothing left that's beautiful to me Verweile doch! Du bist so schön — Not yet? Then on we ride The moment you find worth keeping Is the moment that you died Somewhere above the Brocken Above the bells, the snow Two notes still know my name And will not let it go