You as You Were

When you feel on the rocks

At a bend in the river

With the blood from your nose

Running hard on your fingers

And for the rest of your life

The electric charge

Of a change in the weather

You were touching my arm

You were holding a feather

And then I opened my eyes

And the world goes racing

Suddenly changed

As the shock of the exit

Leaves you trembling

Like a bursting shell

In the small of your back

Or a jaw bites hard

On a cast of your little line

And an animal life pulls, surging, away

And you were back on the road

Through the worst of the winter

Through the valley of light

Passing through like an arrow

With your vision collapsed

And a stone from the river

Like a golden medallion

Clutching tight in your fingers

But on the slope, at the edge

Will you recover your life?

You can stand on the back of a shuddering beam

With a pistol, firing shots into the air

You could run in the blood of the sun's harsh rays

You could drive the mountains down into the bay

Or go back to the east where it's all so civilized

Where I was born to the life

But I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving