FULTON STREET II

I had a vision of snow

Fall into footprints

I watched the winter whip

And bury everything

Off in the distance

Your figure drifting in mist

On pilgrimage and all alone

You were like a stone

Thrown in a river

Or in your pocket

I was the water

And I watched you tremble

Down into nothing

Sink like an anchor

You're failing

A phantom

A break in the bone

I will be the one who chases you out in the snow

Go where you tunnel down and the trouble starts

I will follow you out and carry all the pain away

I will be the one who follows you out in the flow

Go if the water swells drags you under, know

I will swallow it whole and carry all the pain away

Nights I wandered out

Head buried in my coat

Snow blowing in everything

Thick like smoke

I could feel the cold growing

How weather makes you hold things tight

On the way to buy us wine

Nights afraid to die

There is that phantom path

Carved in ghost steps sloped down

To a pond somehow still half-frozen

The evidence of struggle again so many years ago

Our first turn out to Lowell from home

The image returns to me

Again and again

When will it leave?

I was waiting for the anger to change

I was waiting for the anger to change

I was waiting for the anger to change

And the roof beams to bend and give way under weight

I was waiting for the anger to change

I was waiting for the anger to change

I was waiting for the anger to change

And the roof beams to bend and the whole thing to break

Chasing your pain

You were like a chain swung in anger

You're anxious, you're shaking, I know

The shape of your pain

Painted with the name on your shoulder blade

Never gets older or wakes

And I know the way

Down highways through Ada

To places you waited for friends who can't show

And I know your dreams

Of opening caskets

You shake in the mattress, you shake in the...