Backchannels

Oh, when you whistle down the wind

When you needle the dark with your mind

When you're firing volleys of words in an arc

When you're snuffing out all that's still alive

And a droplet falls

From the dropper's eye

Blooms like a wave

That slowly overruns all of your days

And slips the caul

From off your eyes

You face alone

A fear that's dragging us all in its wake

And you kill the lights

I know

You're in the river now

And you yield to the water's embrace

And you lie like a stone on the banks, giving out

As it carries off all of our names

I know that sound

I know what it likes

I know it feels

Like all the guns of a battery trained

Right at your eyes

Because it's real

Because it pulls

A thread of slowly unraveling days

Annihilates

Your mother tongue

Your only light

But hold this sound

Follow it all the way

And put down the knife

The night is here

But still is spinning out stars in its wake

And that stubborn light

Pools in your heart

Warm and nacreous, baby

The milk of sighs

And dreams