You as You Were

When you fell on the rocks
At a bend in the river
With the blood from your nose
Running hot on your fingers
And through the rest of your life
The electric charge
Of a change in the weather
You are touching my arm
You are holding a feather
And then I open 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 are 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 holy medallion
Clutching tight in your fingers
But on the slope, at the edge
Where you recover your life
You could 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 hard 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