Matthew Zapruder - Poem for a Coin lyrics

strange coin I would call bronze on what feels like earth's last morning I stand in the kitchen just holding your slight warmth in my palm trying now to remember from what country I removed you maybe Slovenia or terrible Spain you clink against the gold I wear on the finger known as ring on one side a number on the other some famous candelabra a solemn crowd once a year along the main avenue carried to celebrate Night the considerate guest that while we are sleeping quietly takes its clouds and departs or a shield that long ago protected a prince from an arrow so he could become the cruel organizer whose roads to this day we still unthinking travel strange coin I am asking whose hands without marveling held you on their way though you know you cannot answer some mornings I wander out below the sun scare some crows grab a spade and make a hole place some seeds or a whole plant my wife tells me what to do she is holding an orange can full of clear miraculous water her dark hair her white skin after a funeral I have seen loved ones ritually pound dirt with shovels to make the rectangular hole flat and ready for the stone we can return to each time to place some object that attracts our eye for some reason we cannot explain to wish the souls we don't know if we believe in to nowhere safe journey just in case wherever they are they will know they are thought of and remembered