They're Calling Me

They're calling me to come to
To wake myself, to wake the earth
To rouse the bursting fields
The harvest that I built
But I'm sleeping in this morning
I'm dreaming of a wake
A man with knives is pointing
The path to a dead girl
The coffin lies half-empty
The child too small and low
She's pushed herself to one edge
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

They're calling me to come home
To trumpet my return
To sing of highways drawn in
To exhale, exhaust, and cough
But I'm careful not to tip my hand
No commitment, no regret
Songs are for 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 sleeps his day by
Like I wished I'd sleep my own
They've called enough to wake me
I'm shaking off my dusty sleeves
I'm breaking up my shaky schemes
My charts and graphs and sketches
Of running in inertia
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 road to town
I'm coming back to kiss the ground
To bless it and get out
I get tired but then I don't
Her face was all I couldn't see
When a word called for a cure
Medicine too slow to do the trick
To thick to save the world
Don't close the top, she loves the sun
Not ceilings of spiders and pine
Love requires nothing but love
Nothing but love never hurts

They're calling me to come to
I'm sleeping again, it's late
I'm driving asleep, it's dusty
The air is ugly but ugly's alright
The day I sprained my ankle
I fell to the blacktop just like that
I asked for a nap before the hospital
I asked for my book and my cat
She loves the dirt under the sun
The sun as it looks from the moon
The moon as it looks from the sea
The sky as it splits from the earth
She kisses the dirt under the sun
The ground I walked yesterday
I woke when they carried her out
When she shouted “It's okay”

-2002