Black

The Painting: Gustav Klimt- Love

In the midst of night, I found

My chains all split in half on the ground,

Who took away my shackle's sound?

Who had finally found the key,

To break them off and set me free?

Where could my dearest captor be?

Black, the world misunderstands you still,

Thou, the happiest color of their will,

Black, your power has made the world ill.

And I looked upon your soul that night,

And I saw your beauty deep and bright,

It held me years and years out of sight,

Your chains grew on me and inside,

They circled my heart and crossed my mind

What do I do when they all unbind?

Black, as concrete as they think you are,

Thou are a mystery to me as a star-

Black, as a black hole in a universe afar,

I can stay in my cave forever instead,

Nothing was ever wrong with my stone bed,

I'll wait here for my owner's wine and bread

My master has not come back yet,

The nights have gone through me cold and wet,

Years I've waited since we've last met,

Black, with all your hollowness and our fear,

Thou are the monster rising loud and clear

Black, will you spare us your sharpened spear?

And took off, I have, into the depth of you,

Out from the Labyrinth ruled by you,

And I conquered the lands destroyed by you.

You saw me, I know you did many a time,

I saw you in my house of mirrors and my rhyme,

Often enough I heard our voices chime.

Black, the home of all the homeless,

Thou are the darkness to cure the faithless,

Black, son of a song unbound and boneless.

My chains are gone, my master is gone,

My faith is barely alive in my backbone,

My lips are trembling with names of stone,

And the valley is deep and narrow and long,

And my mind keeps wondering if my feet are wrong,

And my love, Ah! The love beating painful and strong.

Black, the funeral of all things,

Thou, the origin of all beings,

Black,you are the victor on all kings.

I, the queen of the underworld, of caves,

Pass by every moonlit spring, all are graves

For dreams, and screams and pleasure in waves.

I pass by the mud where all the memories leech,

And take them onward wherever my foot will reach,

forwards and backwards and forwards, each gives each.

Black, every other color in you is slew

Thou are the end and the beginning of every hue,

Black, how they all reflect so strong in you.

You tried to kill a fire before, the fire still fought,

It took on every bout of ice you brought,

And lurked in every dream, fear and thought.

Until you learned to embrace my wildest fire,

And it became a power to which you aspire,

Freedom, O master black, is more than just a desire.

Black, who really knows your heart?

An enchained master? Or a slave's depart?

Black, thou are the muse lost in time's art.

Black, the beating core of hope and promise,

Thou are the teacher on the path of freedom's bliss,

Black, guide me into my new owner's abyss.