Black water works beneath the wind Three lamps disagree along the rim Short, longer, longest — then the dark The gravel keeps the weight of where I am You read the border as an invitation Made every limit part of moving fast A red light only changed the decoration You built its pulse into the engine's math The reeds lean out, the transformer worries The lake breaks gold into a crooked scar You never heard the signals gathering You only heard the distance calling on You made the whole horizon feel close You wore the distance open And I still know that wide electric note It lives inside this low and tired throat— Now the bank gives under every beat Rumble in the water, stone beneath my feet Short light, long light, neither one absolves A rolling stone gathers alarms You didn't vanish when the motion stopped You landed in the body that I got Wind moves the warning farther than it travels The lamp-light breaks and sinks among the reeds You called the shaking proof the world was ready I call it what my shoulders have to hold No lamp is asking for confession No lamp can pull a season from its course They flash across the water out of sequence And every broken line arrives at shore Short: I remember Long: I was there Longest: I am still the one who carried it here I can't return you to the distance I can't defend the speed But when I say you, I mean my history Not someone I can leave— ONE BODY — after the rush ONE NAME — under the hush No clean divide where the shoreline bends No stranger waiting at the other end A rolling stone gathers alarms Then carries their light when the rolling is gone You were not right You were not someone else The water cuts the warning into pieces I watch them strike the stones Short, longer, longest through the dark A rolling stone gathers alarms I stand where all three lights can find me.
