The River

Take me away to the river
the one with the sorrowful tide
Take me away to the river
where you tried to quote Elliot,
'Let us go you and I'
Secrets stuck in the ground like
bulbs seldom willing to grow
Me, never willing to churn dirt
and pull them up from below
I have lost more than mailbox keys
dropped more that tumbling ladders

Loud neighbour in the night, tripping
on tin crashing trash cans sounding
alarms and hissing at racoons
Holding his breath as he passes
under open windows
The shadow on the edge of the streelight glow
The astronomer with the telescope
little hope, eyes that won't close

Picture me standing breathless at your
doorstep waiting to say something

about the nature of regret

I have lost more than my mailbox keys
dropped more than tumbling ladders
You should be waking up in the morning
going home at night
and when you are left in the great wake of heartbreak
make it easy to pull warm love out of selfish heartache.

If I were a tree who could speak and
grow up and out of man's reach
I would marry the moonlight
to replace bold honesty with
the cheap thrill of mid-night
There are grains who will know nothing
but thorough wind and cruel heat
and the gentle release from
the ready hands of the withered farmlands
I look down to find suffocation in my own
estranged hands
ground greets my grinding grimace gently
as mud dries.
There is trembling power stumbling up and out from
under my feet

Take me away to the river
forget beauty in being alone
Take me away to the river
we can swear about hearthrob and love
Take me away to the river
the one where we never did go