You As You Were

When you fell on the rocks
At a bend in the river
With the blood from your nose
Running hard on your fingers
And through 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 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