Myrna Loy

Let me stay with you a while and tell old, old stories Of your oft electric laughter and your charms How you came out of Montana with a wolf pup at your heels And a snow white rabbit huddled in your arms In the darkness, in the darkness In the darkness Remember, hey, those Gold Rush days are the gold dust in the mud From Main St. leading all the way to Alder With sunset turned the color of a lover's throated blush And with moonrise, blazed some new and silver river In the darkness, in the darkness In the darkness The minister was bloodless and the preachers were on fire And mahātmās sang their love songs in nasturtiums But if he, or they, or any of their masters called my name I was in your holy temple and never heard them In the darkness, in the darkness In the darkness Remember, hey, those Gold Rush days, some last chance ghost saloon And you, and I, and all the miners watching As shadows danced across a screen as quiet as the moon Without sound if you're resignifying all things The whole town was alive that night as we floated down the street Through fist fights, cowboy police, parlor women And the light from the projector seemed to grow within your soul Like an old bull-throated songbird in its prison In the darkness, in the darkness In the darkness They're tearing down the movies now, not a stone upon a stone All dust is dust no matter how celestial But I, who tasted hornet juice and honey on the rose Would you survive for all their cold memorials? Still every now and then sometimes when the night sky gets so bright And no Bethlehem of stars could match its burning I go out into the fields until I can feel you by my side And my memory is a book of gold thrown open And you rode a white horse, the queen of the harvest kissed your cheek The boys all took one look and found that they could no longer speak In the darkness, in the darkness In the darkness --- Myrna Loy - Josh Ritter