Reciprocity

Every step I take toward you
is a step going farther away;
Every moment descends upon
all that is cannot take.

If I were not gaping and gasping
I could find the breath to weep;
If I were not so seldom awake
I could finally get back to sleep.

The days all bear their patent
the fish are all tagged and traced;
The birds are misguided flying
by satellites in outer space.

Let me say that since you left me
my heart has not healed or mended;
Let me take my love and bury it
so that all grief transcends it.

There is red fire deep in the sea
and thunder within the rocks;
There is no road going but one way,
that lifts but never drops.

Do their songs now lull you to your sleep?
Have you given up the fight?
Do you let their dumb machines eat up
all of your famished light?

Yet still the stars will hook your eye
with little barbs of silver;
Yet still I’ll wander far and wide
myself now to deliver.

The weather is manic-depressive
the day takes sleeping pills;
The plebeians all protest for mercy
but are still over-taxed with bills.

Is your name now pinned to their board
in the asthmatic summer haze?
Is the city smog baptismal,
for these flowers forever chaste?

High are the hopes that nourish well
all the roots of their great Money;
High are their pinions and adverts hung;
my love hangs colloidal inside me.

Now the river will carry the earth
though the Devil at our door grins;
Now temptation dances its finest;
at the end it only begins.