she gets you on her wave-length
and she lets the river answer
that you've always been her lover.
And you want to travel with her,
you want to travel blind
and you know that she can trust you
because you've touched her perfect body
with your mind.
Jesus was a sailor
when he walked upon the water
and he spent a long time watching
from a lonely wooden tower
and when he knew for certain
only drowning men could see him
he said All men will be sailors then
until the sea shall free them,
but he himself was broken
long before the sky would open,
forsaken, almost human,
he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone.
And you want to travel with him,
I !.!09
you want to travel blind
and you think maybe you'll trust him
because he touched your perfect body
with his mind.
Suzanne takes your hand
and she leads you to the river,
she is wearing rags and feathers
from Salvation Army counters.
The sun pours down like honey
on our lady of the harbour
as she shows you where to look
among the garbage and the flowers,
there are heroes in the seaweed
there are children in the morning,
they are leaning out for love
they will lean that way forever
while Suzanne she holds the mirror.
And you want to travel with her
and you want to travel blind
and you're sure that she can find you
because she's touched her perfect body
with her mind.
2 10 1
G I V E M E B A C K M Y F I N G E R P R I N T S
Give me back my fingerprints
My fingertips are raw
If I don't get my fingerprints
I have to call the Law
I touched you once too often
& I don't know who I am
My fingerprints were missing
When I wiped away the jam
I called my fingerprints all night
But they don't seem to care
The last time that I saw them
They were leafing through your hair
I thought I'd leave this morning
So I emptied out your drawer
A hundred thousand fingerprints
Floated to the floor
You hardly stooped to pick them up
You don't count what you lose
You don't even seem to know
Whose fingerprints are whose
When I had to say goodbye
You weren't there to find
You took my fingerprints away
So I would love your mind
I don't pretend to understand
Just what you mean by that
1 2 1 1
But next time I'll inquire
Before I scratch your back
I wonder if my fingerprints
Get lonely in the crowd
There are no others like them
& that should make them proud
Now you want to marry me
& take me down the aisle
& throw confetti fingerprints
You know that's not my style
Sure I'd like to marry
But I won't face the dawn
With any girl who knew me
When my fingerprints were on
2 1 2 1
F O R E I G N G O D , R E I G N I N G
I N E A R T H L Y G L O R Y . . .
Foreign God, reigning in earthly glory between the Godless
God and this greedy telescope of mine: touch my hidden
jelly muscle, ring me with some power, I must conquer
Babylon and New York. Draw me with a valuable sign,
raise me to your height. You and I, dear Foreign God, we
both are demons who must disappear in the perpetual crawl·
ing light, the fumbling sparks printing the shape of each
tired form. We must be lost soon in the elementary Kodak
experiment, in the paltry glory beyond our glory, the chalksqueak of our most limitless delight. We are devoted yokels of the mothy parachute, the salvation of ordeal, we paid
good money for the perfect holy scab, the pilgrim kneecap,
the shoulder freakish under burden, the triumphant snowman who does not freeze. Down with your angels, Foreign God, down with us, adepts of magic: into the muddy fire
of our furthest passionate park, let us consign ourselves now,
puddles, peep-holes, dreary oceanic pomp seen through the
right end of the telescope, the minor burn, the kingsize cigarette, the alibi atomic holocaust, let us consign ourselves to the unmeasured exile outside the rules of lawlessness. 0
God, in thy foreign or godless form, in thy form of illusion
or with the ringscape of your lethal thumb, you stop direction, you crush this down, you abandon the evidence you pressed on its tongue.
I 2 1 3
I B E L I E V E Y O U H E A R D Y O U R
M A S T E R S I N G
I believe you heard your master sing
while I lay sick in bed
I believe he told you everything
I keep locked in my head
Your master took you traveling
at least that's what you said
0 love did you come back to bring
your prisoner wine and bread
You met him at some temple where
they take your clothes at the door
He was just a numberless man of a pair
who has just come back from the war
You wrap his quiet face in your hair
and he hands you the apple core
and he touches your mouth now so suddenly bare
of the kisses you had on before
He
