lessons

Pull out the claw
because the black cord is unwinding
its whipping freely now
and trailing in your tracks
you have crossed over black tar
and into some frozen dream
the river that flows west
somehow bent by summers' cracking barrenness
sends you somewhere else
the long road away from me
I stand now in stagnant water
that used to pulse and pool
but at least you left me something
my knowledge and my dignity