Prisoner

We lucked out, the prisoner and I
It was a weighted world, and we just got by
In the wood men fed children with diseases
On the road the mad aunts gathered
They’ve left their poison in the road dust
And I manage rest on fences driven into earth

Last night I took myself back on the weathered stretches
Slowly lost my footing, when I saw your prisoner shackles
I fell across your ankles, heard the smothered sound of moaning
It was you, who I'd forgotten
You, who’ve been forsaken

Last night I bathed myself in road dust
Faced the elders who in that dust were whirling
And I think I might go crazy if they won’t let me sleep
Their eyes flash on fogs that blind me
They lay in hollows, judging
They sweep the air, dancing, just above my head

I thought we’d got away, I and my captive
Spreading out on the land to take it back, like a lover
But in unnamed ways they’ve bound the prisoner
And fouled what I knew of earth and brush and song
And I can’t go to sleep now the witnesses are gone