Button-Down Sky - Original

Out from the rath and the hawthorn ring Up from the well where the Selkie sing Púca and Pixie, quiet and kin Running to the place the sky tucks in Heather and hawthorn hustle up to the blue A spot in a skyline sewn together in two We pressed all our trembling hands to the line And tried to lift a hem that is wholly divine We pushed all day and the seam stayed sewn We pulled and we pulled at a sky made of stone A hundred human hands on a billion bright stars Failing to force open what never was ours But the sky unbuttons from the top, my love The sky unbuttons from the top! Not in field, not at home, not in fire nor in foam The sky unbuttons from the top! The Banshee gave up with a silvery sigh The Cailleach coughed at a buttoned-up sky The Selkie wept on her seal-soft skin For the door (oh the door!) does not open within! So we lay in a ring at the world's bright rim Singing soft to the seam as the sky got dim And the song sought a hand, though they knew not which Hoping long for a tear in the topmost stitch And out of the high blue, gold at his crown, A lion of light came royally down Mane like the morning, eyes like the sun Paws on the seam where the sewing was done The lion bent low, mane brushing the heath Took the first bright button in his terrible teeth And button by button, the sky came free Button by button, from the crown to the sea! Further up, further in, oh my kith and my kin! What once was barred I now allow in What you could not unbutton, I open to you And my country is wider than country you knew But the sky unbuttoned from the top, my love The sky unbuttoned from the top! Not in field, not at home, not in fire nor in foam The sky unbuttoned from the top!