You as You Were

When you fell in the rocks

At the 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 axe, it leaves you trembling

Like a busting shell in the small of your back

Or a job that's hard on the cast of your little lie

And an animal life was surging away

And you were back on the road

Through the worst of the Winter

Through the Valley of Lies

Passing through like an arrow

Oh, if your vision collapsed

And a storm from the river

Like a golden medalion

Clutching tight in your fingers

But on the slope of 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 the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving