The Storm Rises

You better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone

Can you feel the tension building?
The breaths are getting deeper
The air is cooling down
Somewhere deep inside I know that I feel thunder
As it shakes and rumbles in my bones
The torsion twists the wind's feathers
And the birds flock together in flight

I've got the wind whipping round me
My hair lashing my beaten face
I'm surrounded in its swirl
The debris barely missing me
For about me spins the leaves of the great trees
Their roots dug in deep
Stubborn to the end
And the birds fly

My hair becomes a halo
Light against the sky
Night has kidnapped our aching sun
Its efforts to shine fade away and are unseen
As the storm begins to rise

I can feel the rhythm shifting
The noises of the woods blend in
With the wailing of the wind
As the trees stand their ground
And still in circles my angels fly
Wings bent and broken
Defenceless but still they float in the darkness
Their eyes closed as though sleeping
And peace sets across my mind

All hollows fill with echoes
And I can hear the weather's mirth
No matter how high and mighty we might become
We can be brought down to size as the storm begins to rise

Oh lead me down the valleys
The way is no longer clear
Can you hear me over the laughing?
Won't the wind stop wailing so that I might listen to the rain?
For water is now thrashing against my lips
What does it give voice to?

The rocks are shifting, trees uprooting as I brace my feet
They wouldn't let me keep my faltering gait
Why must I be quick and nimble?
The storm is rising
And the way is no longer clear
My way clouded in fear
Something else must guide me home

The mortars of the world are nothing but my fantasies
My eyes are blind
For all I see is a void and then blinding light
My ears are numb, for all I hear is the groaning
As the thunder tears apart the sky
My voice cannot carry and I only sing along
With the chorus at play
And in agony of desperation
To be noticed and heard I look again to the heavens
And their my watchers fly
Little stars amongst the darkened sky
Lighting the staffs stood out amongst the fells
And braving the elements that have long held our home to hostage

They spiral out of control, flailing about as the wailing whirls about me
And I know they are blind to their magic
To the symbols they posed
To the hope mankind can hold
I can see them dipping and diving
I see those arched branches bending
I can see them make their home in the outstretched arms of my soldiers
Holding sentinel in the earth where they have waited

I see the blur of feathers as they fall
And I can hear their cry as it pierces the air
The air is still and silent
Only loss permeates the air
It thickens, and it rains as crimson tears
And I look only long enough to know I too am raining upon this beaten dirt
And my warriors are still and silent
Their arms clutched tight in mourning
And my knees are folding
Forced inwards in surrender
Why would my fortunes fall now in my favour?
When it was all against us from birth?
And still the storm rises