Alters Shine

I felt the bone chilling emptiness, something like  numbness,

                                Heaven can wait,

You had not come home and I knew,

                                And a band of angels wrapped up in my heart,

You were not coming home again.

                                Will take me through the lonely night

After much searching for you the sergeant said

                                Through the cold of the day

Whoever had been driving your car was a victim of a homicide,

                                And I know I know,

                                Heaven can wait,

And the sergeant in LA said, was he an athlete?

                                And all I got is time until the end of time,

And the sergeant in LA said, was his designed ring silver?

                                And the melody’s gonna make me fly

And the sergeant in La said, was he tan?

                                Without pain, without tears,

And the sergeant in LA said: well, maybe you better come down

                                And I know that I been released

And I went down to the LA morgue at USC medical center

                                But I don’t know to where

At the end of a long, white hall, maybe 60 feet, a silver gurney,

                                And nobody’s gonna tell me now

Someone was lying with a white sheet pulled shoulder height,

                                And I don’t really care

And I walked what seemed to be the last walk I would ever want to walk,

                                Oh no, no

Until I could see your handsome face, facing up without sight -

with a tiny trickle of blood someone had forgotten at the crevice of your lip

                                I got a ticket to paradise, never gonna let it slip away,

I walked forward the last five feet and saw a ball of white light from your

body hit my chest                ,                                              

I got a ticket to paradise, never gonna let it slip away

All anxiety left, all bewilderment, all tension and pain dissipated

                                I got a ticket to paradise, if I had it any sooner you know,

I wiped the trickle of blood from the left crevice of your lip

                                You know I never would have run away from my home,

I sensed the compassion of the medical people around me, standing back;

                                Heaven can wait,

Their kindness made me feel like a visiting angel that had completed something,

                                And all I got is time until the end of time,

And upstairs, I signed your official death certificate that said “gunshot wound

to the head,” and I accepted with love all that you could give, your final gift of light –

                                And I won’t look back, I won’t look back -

                                Let the alters shine,

Let the alters shine.