Hands done up in rose gold You were a vision with a baby on your hip Prone to meddle with crystals As though you missed all other spiritual conduits And as I'm hacking at a novel somewhere Trying to comb the sparrows out of my hair I'm thinking back about the time you read my palm God, I hope you did it wrong Bliss? Bliss is a flak jacket I've since sought to expel But I fear it's clear That I'm not a shaman So I'll keep my "cosmic revelations" to myself I watched a revolution choke and sputter I saw depression try to kill my brother I heard Leviathan was living in a lake Up near the border states Back, back off the back porch There was a demon in the bonfire we made We formed an assembly line To cart back buckets we had summoned from the lake And even when all of the kindling had flattened We were never certain anything happened Besides the vestiges of smoke getting in my shirt And smelling of the earth