Counting - Marianne Faithfull

Now is the glimmering spinning beginning

Of something I’ve prayed for and counted the minutes

To be in the shadows of sheltering meadows

Of night, here with you in my arms

This is the moment that pauses to hold us

As you and I move in a background of wonder

Surrounded by countless enclosures

Of nocturnal unspoken music of joy

Counting times you have stood at the foot of my ivory tower

And waited, and called out my name by the hour

And counted on the wings of my heartstrings

To carry the sound, I have counted on pleading

You see how I need you, come down

And now between twilight and midnight I come to you

Down in my gown of soft moonbeams and starlight

Bright is the evening, the breezes have fenced us

And nestled against us —

You’re here —

And warm

And mine till the time

When the dawn will awake you

The morning will shake you

The highway will take you

But now all the rays of the moon making bouquets

Will swim through the luster of lingering street lights

We count on the night to hold everything even

And count on forgetting that you will be leaving

And destiny’s folded and then in the dawn you’ll be gone

But now as the gardens of softening night time

Are blossoming slowly around where we are

You and I come together

And walk through the dreams of the stars

So here while the song of the deepening evening

Is singing to me from the light in your eyes

We can count on each other to move to the beach of tomorrow

And know where we’ve been