hold you all the tighter smuggle you in a dream across death's border
you are beyond Babylon ...the many miles to... the childhood rhyme
I told you "Can I get there by candle light..?" I ask the dark
"...there and back again..." the emptiness echoes.
each night I fetch your ghost feeding it my pain
to keep you here again only to have to return you
when morning brings a new day you can never know
*
Brian was about ten or eleven when Jennifer Johnson's beautifully elegant and achingly sad novella HOW MANY MILES TO BABYLON came out...I used to tell him the story and read bits to him. He had asked me why the book was called that so I would recite the little rhyme for him and then he would often repeat it to himself.
How many miles to Babylon? Three score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, and back again. If your heels are nimble and light, You may get there by candle-light.