10 Greatest Leonard Cohen Lyrics (Part 5)

Continued from last post


8) "Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long.

Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned"- The Sisters Of Mercy

No one else can see them. In the wings before he walks on, in the corner near the curtain, there are two girls softly smiling, staring straight into his eyes. He looks around him at the stagehands who walk past like they don't notice. But they don't let people back here, and they're too beautiful to just walk by. "Almost show time Leonard", someone says and Leonard murmurs his assent, then looks back to where the girls were standing but now the girls are gone. And frozen in his tracks, the whole theater shakes around him. The heavy lights above the stage fall down and shatter into broken glass. The roadies vanish, the audience follows, the fixtures turn, the curtains fall. Like he's in a dream that's melting, Leonard blinks and rubs his eyes, and he's no longer where he was but in a desert streching out it's waste for miles. Yes the whole thing was a lie. The tour, the records, the reviews, the career...you get strange dreams in a desert; with no hope and no chance come mirages, while the wind blows unforgiving, burning sand, into your eyes. "Yes, now I remember. In my life I've walked this desert, and parching and forsaken, I've come here of my own accord to die. My loved ones; I have left them. I have departed and gone. And my friends, had I kept them...they are departed and gone. And the ones who brought me comfort, they are departed and gone...I lay me down forsaken, a hopeless soul, forgotten, alone in the desert sands I lay me down to die. "We are not departed and gone". My work is done, I thought it special, it was not special work at all. 30 pieces of silver. "We are not departed and gone". All the chances to be happy, and I denied them all..."We are not departed and gone"...but you imagine strange things in a desert..."We are not departed and gone". And there are hands upon him lifting. And like he's in a dream they lead him and carry him to where the stream is running, soft and still full, even after all this time. And they dip a golden cup into the cool clear mountain waters, and to his parched lips lift it up, and let him drink deep from the side. Stunned and half in unbelief, his cracking baritone can barely find the words "I thought that you had left me", as the tears come to his eyes. They smile, shake their heads sadly, and one leans in close and kisses him, and looking straight into his eyes says "We are not departed and gone". And the lights go down. He's backstage again and it's almost time to go on. He doesn't look to where they were standing, it doesn't matter if they're still there. The kiss was something to carry until the next time that he's lost. In his prayers he thanks them soundly, tunes his guitar and walks on.




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