valentine

Patience, valence, valentine
The dream floods in and the veil wears through
At these depths everything is a hook
At these outer edges I would yield to you

I have the whole wide river to myself
I have no skates and my skin is bare
Melting ridges in the ice with my fingers
Tell me again about why it's not fair

Waiting for the ice to crack
Waiting for the world to rear its head
Waiting for the heat to rend the air in two
I could never say no to you

Crying in my car alone against
A heat wave midnight humidity
How many years have we spent
Trying to break into familiarity?

Floating towards the horizon
I watch myself like a paper boat
I would sooner slip off the edge of the earth
Still I tie knots around every fencepost

We have always lived as though everyone will hear
I'll lose myself in the illusion
White flag in a blank expanse
We found the place before creation

I marvel at a sleeping world
Seam to seam, strung and wound
We're all curtains and clouds and wires now
A way of attaching, I'll come around

Push through until the waves of fear flatline
Like an iron press me down
No more no more, close your eyes to me
If you must lay here, cover your mouth

So give up - pressure, punishing, nothing now
You skate a new ring for every winter
I place a beam straight through my center
Now I spin out gracefully