a love supreme

it’s never too late
never too late
never too late
to look at
your own face
it rained in the streets
rained in the streets
rained through our dreams
a love supreme
a love supreme
it rained in new orleans
jazz in the streets
an ancient blues
filtering through the air
so that every move
is old and new
sleepy time saxophone
beads of rain leaking
down the window pane
it’s never too late
to look at
your own face
the old conjure man
with his roots
and bones
vendor cries
vendor calls
it’s never too late
to open
your dream
a love supreme
a love supreme

and i only know
black silk magnolia
fried bananas
in a french quarter room
on a wet afternoon
umbrellas and horns
in the street below
it’s never too late
to open your dream
the shift of light
the way it bends and flows
over old wood and stone
and i only know
the buzz and roar
of bourbon street
carhorns and sirens
jazzhorns and pianos
mimes and shoeshines
the wild shouts
of the old-time blues
the mojo eyes of voodoo
and i only know
the drum of her body
the jungle of her moves
the pulse of her blood
the dance of her breath
the glow of her skin
in the late afternoon
as foghorns mix with
saxophones and the
smells of the quarter
soak into you

it’s never too late
a love supreme
never too late
a love supreme
it’s just those ghosts
of new orleans
those phantoms who
haunt your dreams
open the windows
to the screams
of bourbon street
a love supreme
a love supreme
and i want to be
a voodoo king
with the power
of my gris-gris
burn a candle
for your destiny
dance the snake
for your identity
as the night burns
down in chicken
blood and swamp mud
i want to chant
of the snake god
damballah and
the mysteries

it’s never too late
to look at
your own face
in a backalley bar
or a french quarter balcony
feel the hypnotic pull
of snake eggs
snakeskin
the way she
moves like
a snake
the trace of her neck
her back
like a snake dance
it’s never too late
to open your dream
the drum of her body
the beat of her blood
a love supreme
a love supreme
and i want the rain
the shuddering thunder
of her body
i want to paint and sing
her body’s dance
feel the tribal blood
the jungle of
her body’s drum