Emily

[Verse 1]

The meadowlark and the chim-choo-ree and the sparrow

Set to the sky in a flying spree, for the sport of the pharaoh

Little while later the Pharisees dragged a comb through the meadow

Do you remember what they called up to you and me, in our window?

There is a rusty light on the pines tonight;

Sun pouring wine, lord, or marrow, into the

Bones of the birches, and the spires of the churches, jutting out from the shadows;

The yoke, and the axe, and the old smokestacks, and the bale, and the barrow—

And everything sloped, like it was dragged from a rope, in the mouth of the south below

We've seen those mountains kneeling, felten and grey

We thought our very hearts would up and melt away

From that snow in the nighttime

Just going and going

And the stirring of wind chimes

In the morning

In the morning

Helps me find my way back in

From the place where I have been—

And, Emily, I saw you last night by the river

I dreamed you were skipping little stones across the surface of the water—

Frowning at the angle where they were lost, and slipped under forever

In a mud-cloud, mica-spangled, like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

Anyhow, I sat by your side, by the water

You taught me the names of the stars overhead, that I wrote down in my ledger—

Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades, loosed in December

I promised you I'd set them to verse so I'd always remember

[Chorus]

That the meteorite is the source of the light

And the meteor's just what we see;

And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite’s just what causes the light

And the meteor’s how it’s perceived;

And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void, that lies quiet in offering to thee

[Verse 2]

You came and lay a cold compress upon the mess I'm in;

Threw the windows wide and cried, "Amen! Amen! Amen!"

The whole world stopped to hear you hollering

You looked down, and saw, now, what was happening:

The lines are fading in my kingdom

(Though I have never known the way to border them in);

So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows, and the grouse, and the horse, and the hen

Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen

And the mail is late, and the great estates are not lit from within

The talk in town's becoming downright sickening

In due time we will see the far buttes lit by a flare

I've seen your bravery, and I will follow you there

And row through the nighttime

So healthy

Gone healthy all of a sudden

In search of a midwife

Who can help me

Who can help me

Help me find my way back in

And there are worries where I've been

And say, say, say, in the lee of the bay

Don't be bothered

Leave your troubles here

Where the tugboats shear the water from the water

(Flanked by furrows, curling back, like a match held up to a newspaper)

Emily, they'll follow your lead by the letter

And I make this claim, and I'm not ashamed to say I knew you better

What they've seen is just a beam of your sun that banishes winter

Let us go! Though we know it's a hopeless endeavor

The ties that bind, they are barbed and spined, and hold us close forever

Though there is nothing would help me come to grips with

A sky that is gaping and yawning

There is a song I woke with on my lips

As you sailed your great ship towards the morning

Come on home. The poppies are all grown knee-deep by now

Blossoms all have fallen, and the pollen ruins the plow

Peonies nod in the breeze

And while they wetly bow

With hydrocephalitic listlessness

Ants mop up their brow

And everything with wings is restless, aimless, drunk and dour;

The butterflies and birds collide at hot, ungodly hours

And my clay-colored motherlessness rangily reclines—

Come on home, now! All my bones are dolorous with vines

Pa pointed out to me, for the hundredth time tonight

The way the ladle leads to a dirt-red bullet of light

Squint skyward and listen—

Loving him, we move within his borders:

Just asterisms in the stars' set order

We could stand for a century

Staring

With our heads cocked

In the broad daylight at this thing:

Joy

Landlocked in bodies that don’t keep—

Dumbstruck with the sweetness of being

Till we don’t be

Told: take this

And eat this

[Chorus]

Told: the meteorite is the source of the light

And the meteor's just what we see;

And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

And the meteorite’s just what causes the light

And the meteor’s how it’s perceived;

And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee