Wake (for Stephen Watson)
Slow down; slow down;
what is that you are
dragging in the wake behind you?
This mountain is one
an ancient glacier called to account.
Beneath its flat crest now much daily business, bustle, hubbub
and beyond, beneath that veneer,
deep undertow, contesting currents whittling
down sandstone and granite to a
peninsula even thinner.
I also learned here
beneath the mountain, in this wet place, something
to last me through dry nights bereft of wine, malt,
sumptuous communion of bodily fluid. But
with so much sun, shadow
must follow, the words have
long lineage, there is
aphorism locked in
their seeming innocence
a dark truth, to break
whose code you will
have to dig
deeply or
take with you, take home,
keep for later, carry
across other mountains, across other oceans,
last, last sea
slow down, slow down, unhook this promontory, unfasten this kingdom,
swim alone, long last, swim
forever,
swim free.