Filaments

The night is like a black stone

But it ripples in the wind

And you are shaking

like a new slave

In an ultraviolet sun

Shiver at the night sky

From the ribbon of the road:

Hollow little diamonds

All embedded in the null

Head like a blank screen

A body alive

You are living in the last rays

Kicking up the nights

Oh, little stars—

In the center of the sun,

in the stain

spilling out into the light

In the calling of the gulls,

in the river

running out into the night

Some people run from themselves

Some chain the dogs to the gate

Some are living a lie

Daddy’s on the next plane

And he’s looking to survive

He is soaking from a long run

He is fingering a knife

Summoning a white lie

From the fingers to the mind

You were watching the horizon

But it was in you all the time

Like a worm in the bloodline

Like an urge wants release—

But you roll away the sun,

Throw it back into the east

Falling lights

on the miracles

of a golden age

Blackened sounds

of the millions

in the streets today

Where some people

turn on themselves

Some hang around for an age

Some are paralyzed

In the center of the sun,

in the hole

in the belly of the light,

In the shudder in the hull,

in the river

running out into the night

There is someone in the room,

there is someone in the darkness

I’m taking everything back:

When I led you down to the lake

It was the thrill of my life