Carlsbad

I went into the hole with you
to give silence a name
and to know who we’ve both been talking to,
to strike a match and light a flame.
But the darkness was complete
and the weight of it was intense.
Our tongues were tightly reigned---
none of this makes any sense.
Oh don’t hide yourself away
like a prisoner underground
don’t leave the light of day
for this hiding place you’ve found.
A subterranean river moves
to hollow out an empty place.
Can you feel it in you heart?
I can see it in your face.
And the man in the uniform
tells me about the weight of stone
and there’s a child who’s on vacation,
but he’s crying to go home,
And the wonder of a cavern
is the time that it takes
to carve a space of silent blackness,
and the hollow sound it makes.
I have traveled south
across the barren dirt,
and I will open up my mouth,
and I will say the words---
We will talk of love and friendship,
we will talk of poetry,
and we will talk about the pain
that carves the holes in you and me.
I can feel it in my heart…, can you see it in my face?