I Never Dream Of Names

They're calling me to come to
To wake myself, to wake the earth
To rouse the bursting fields
To harvest what I built

But I'm sleeping in this morning
I'm dreaming of a wake
A man with knives is pointing
"This is the path to take"

The coffin lies half-empty
The child too small and low
She's pushed herself to one end
With gravity, grief, or both

I nod my first and last respects
I never knew the girl
I often dream of strangers
With half a sparrow's curl

Theyr'e calling me to come home
To trumpet my return in song
To sing of highways drawn in
To exhale exhaust and cough

But I'm careful not to tip my hand
No commitments, no regrets
Songs are for the sweet romantics
With fists for wings and feet for feet

I never knew the girl though
I recognize her hands
Pale and soft and empty
Holding out for holding back

Her years were warm and heavy
With snow on each her birthdays
But her name is a mystery
I never dream of names

They're calling me to slip through
The gateway to the next day
The keeper skips his day by
Like I wished I'd slept my own

They've called enough to wake me
I'm shaking off my dusty sleeves
I'm breaking up my paper schemes
The graphs of forward motion

The charts of lost inertia
Lost as far as eyes can see
But eyes are built for sleeping
In dreams the fever cures the well

I recognize her hands
They're open to the extra space
She hopes the lid stays open
Oh god, I recognize her face

They're calling me to speak up
My voice is soft but pure
No threat I make is veiled
No promise too impossible

I switch back to the the road to town
I'm coming back to kiss the ground
To bless it, to go back home
I get tired but then I don't

Her face was all I couldn't see
To speak a word called for a cure
Medicine too slow to do the trick
Too thick to save the known world

Don't close the top, she loves the sun
And ceilings of spiders and dirt
Love requires nothing but love
Nothing but love never hurts

They're calling me to come to
I'm sleeping again, it's morning
I'm driving asleep, it's dusty
The air is ugly, it's alright

She loves the dirt under the sun
The sun as it looks from the moon
The moon as it falls from the sky
The sky as it splits from the earth

She kisses the dirt under the sun
The ground I walked on yesterday
I woke when they carried her out
When she shouted "it's okay, it's okay"

The day I sprained my ankle was a Thursday
I fell to the blacktop just like that
I asked for a nap before the hospital
I asked for my book, I asked for my cat

spring 2005