(no subject)
Climb inside a cloud of dust and wait for your instructions
Unbutton yourself, strip down to less than skin
Strip down to ears and mouth and eyes and ether
Now, beyond your dust you'll find the valleys where the old trains used to race
And a single track that leads out to the sea
You'll find it follows every city's edges, by their breadcrumb-corner buildings and the houses wearing masks of boards and nails
When the rod-iron gates salute you and the mausoleums tip their hats and bow, you'll see yourself dusted with the space between the waking light and dawn
Take a left
Take a stroll
Hitch a ride as an old ghost train
Sure, your wheels are geriatric dancers struggling to pirouette, but those old ghost passengers have a deadline
They've gotta get there, gotta see it, gotta reach that bone-colored place before the morning
When you find it, when you see that place where rain has barely touched the sky--
Howl. Let your breath slide out like cream as you leave those ghosts to moan
Then, breathe low upon the ground
Tug at the collars of all the sleeping flowers
Speak to them of light, tell them stories of the fire, give them verses of the rain to bathe in
Let them inhale every word, every life you've lived beyond those railroad spikes, take it in like powdered oxygen and watch the sugar rush propel them to the stars
Up to the ancient lights staring through a hole in the atmosphere like a drunkard through the bottom of a glass
Bleary-eyed and crying, they pour salt into the Milky Way for you
Because at one time, we winked bright red eyes at them, rubbed fiery shoulders with them across a great cold nothing
Because at one time, we stood arm to arm as gods
Faces smooth as cream, no proper eyes to see the absence of our mouths
But our ears collected every drop of sound, every sigh of every star, every whisper between the moons and all their husbands
And we burned brighter for the chance to see, ignited for a breath, a light, or darkness
To know what darkness was and how it differed from anything else
So we unraveled like a string of pearls, revealing something worthy of a word that never needed us before: NAKED
We were naked
A word that wound us tight with thick string and spun us like a top
A word that covered us with soot as we burned up the stratosphere
Just a word to lay our tracks to travel out to sea
So follow them, follow the smell, the aroma that comes with the marriage of a raging celestial fire and the churning salts of the ocean
Walk until you drift right off the shore
Stand above the water, smell the crest of every burning wave
Stand naked at the edge of everything
Blow across the waves and find the nothing
And you'll remember all you wanted once was nothing
For it's exactly what we asked for back when we were gods...
Unbutton yourself, strip down to less than skin
Strip down to ears and mouth and eyes and ether
Now, beyond your dust you'll find the valleys where the old trains used to race
And a single track that leads out to the sea
You'll find it follows every city's edges, by their breadcrumb-corner buildings and the houses wearing masks of boards and nails
When the rod-iron gates salute you and the mausoleums tip their hats and bow, you'll see yourself dusted with the space between the waking light and dawn
Take a left
Take a stroll
Hitch a ride as an old ghost train
Sure, your wheels are geriatric dancers struggling to pirouette, but those old ghost passengers have a deadline
They've gotta get there, gotta see it, gotta reach that bone-colored place before the morning
When you find it, when you see that place where rain has barely touched the sky--
Howl. Let your breath slide out like cream as you leave those ghosts to moan
Then, breathe low upon the ground
Tug at the collars of all the sleeping flowers
Speak to them of light, tell them stories of the fire, give them verses of the rain to bathe in
Let them inhale every word, every life you've lived beyond those railroad spikes, take it in like powdered oxygen and watch the sugar rush propel them to the stars
Up to the ancient lights staring through a hole in the atmosphere like a drunkard through the bottom of a glass
Bleary-eyed and crying, they pour salt into the Milky Way for you
Because at one time, we winked bright red eyes at them, rubbed fiery shoulders with them across a great cold nothing
Because at one time, we stood arm to arm as gods
Faces smooth as cream, no proper eyes to see the absence of our mouths
But our ears collected every drop of sound, every sigh of every star, every whisper between the moons and all their husbands
And we burned brighter for the chance to see, ignited for a breath, a light, or darkness
To know what darkness was and how it differed from anything else
So we unraveled like a string of pearls, revealing something worthy of a word that never needed us before: NAKED
We were naked
A word that wound us tight with thick string and spun us like a top
A word that covered us with soot as we burned up the stratosphere
Just a word to lay our tracks to travel out to sea
So follow them, follow the smell, the aroma that comes with the marriage of a raging celestial fire and the churning salts of the ocean
Walk until you drift right off the shore
Stand above the water, smell the crest of every burning wave
Stand naked at the edge of everything
Blow across the waves and find the nothing
And you'll remember all you wanted once was nothing
For it's exactly what we asked for back when we were gods...