Testo You As You Were

when you fall on the rocks

at a bend in the river

with the blood from your nose

running hard on your fingers
and for the rest of your life


the electric charge

of a change in the weather

you were touching my arm

you were holding a feather

and then I opened my eyes


and the world goes racing, suddenly changed
as the shock of the axe, it leaves you trembling

like a busting shell in the small of your back

or a drop that's hard on the cast of your little lie

and an animal life will serve you away


and you were back on the road

through the worst of the winter

through the valley of light

passing through like an arrow


oh, if your vision collapsed

and a storm from the river

like a pull in the

clutching tight in your fingers

but on the slope at the edge

when you recover your life


you can stand on the back of a shuddering beam

with a pistol firing shots into the air

you could run in the blood of the sun's hard rays

you could drive the mountains down into the bay

or go back to the east where it's all so civilized

where I was born to the life


but I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving the life

I am leaving