Go Long

Last night, again

You were in my dreams

Several expendable limbs were at stake

You were a prince, spinning rims

All sentiments indian-given

And half-baked

I was brought

In on a palanquin

Made of the many bodies

Of beautiful women

Brought to this place to be examined

Swaying on an elephant

A princess of india

We both want the very same thing

We are praying

I am the one to save you

But you don't even own

Your own violence

Run away from home-

Your beard is still blue

With the loneliness of you mighty men

With your jaws, and fists, and guitars

And pens, and your sugarlip

But I've never been to the firepits with you mighty men

Who made you this way?

Who made you this way?

Who is going to bear your beautiful children?

Do you think you can just stop

When you're ready for a change?

Who will take care of you

When you're old and dying?

You burn in the Mekong

To prove your worth

Go Long! Go Long!

Right over the edge of the earth!

You have been wronged

Tore up since birth

You have done harm

Others have done worse

Will you tuck your shirt?

Will you leave it loose?

You are badly hurt

You're a silly goose

You are caked in mud

And in blood, and worse

Chew your bitter cud

Grope your little nurse

Do you know why

My ankles are bound in gauze

(Sickly dressage

A princess of Kentucky)?

In the middle of the woods

(Which were the probable cause)

We danced in the lodge

Like two painting monkeys

I will give you a call, for one last hurrah

If this tale is tall, forgive my scrambling

But you keep palming along the wall

Moving at a blind crawl

But always rambling

Wolf-spider, crouch in your funnel nest

If I knew you, once

Now I know you less

In the sinking sand

Where we've come to rest

Have I had a hand in your loneliness?

When you leave me alone

In this old palace of yours

It starts to get to me. I take to walking

What a woman does is open doors

And it is not a question of locking

Or unlocking

Well, I have never seen

Such a terrible room-

Gilded with the gold teeth

Of the women who loved you!

Now, though I die

Magpie, this I bequeath

By any other name

A jay is still blue

With the loneliness

Of you mighty men

With your mighty kiss

That might never end

While, so far away

In the seat of the west

Burns the fount

Of the heat

Of that loneliness

There's a man

Who only will speak in code

Backing slowly, slowly down the road

May he master everything

That such men may know

About loving, and then letting go