I have been learning How to love Like the earth: Its cool impartiality to seed Of weeds or grain. Both are same To it, as it follows its unconscious duty To pulse their hidden dormancies Into a living light.

Yet each soil is partial To a particular seed. On our farm, it is white cotton Just as in me, it is yours!

To free herself from bondage, On her back the first mark Do the thorns of this rose still Remind her of the weight she carried?

On the ankle, a butterfly Hovering over a daisy. Is this to remember those fields Of the past she had walked through?

A blue crescent moon because She howls as it rises. Do they Meet somehow, some of mine Arcing over the continental sky?

A dragon crouching on the curve Of her spine, it leaps and flares. As she moves. How can one hold Such motion between his arms?

Then metal entwined with skin, Is this to mark those places Where she wants to be kissed Till the softness begins to hurt?

• for Anna

Call you up in the middle of the night Like a firefly without a light You were there like a blowtorch burning I was a key that could use a little turning So tired that I couldn't even sleep So many secrets I couldn't keep Promised myself I wouldn't weep One more promise I couldn't keep It seems no one can help me now I'm in too deep there's no way out This time I have really led myself astray Runaway train never going back Wrong way on a one way track Seems like I should be getting somewhere Somehow I'm neither here nor there Can you help me remember how to smile Make it somehow all seem worthwhile How on earth did I get so jaded Life's mystery seems so faded I can go where no one else can go I know what no one else knows Here I am just drownin' in the rain With a ticket for a runaway train Everything is cut and dry Day and night, earth and sky Somehow I just don't believe it Bought a ticket for a runaway train Like a madman just a laughin' at the rain Little out of touch, little insane Just easier than dealing with the pain Runaway train never comin' back Runaway train tearin' up the track Runaway train burnin' in my veins Runaway but it always seems the same