Chris Whitley

Vertical Desert

Chris Whitley


I lean back on the sundial
Where angels fall;
Too late to tell thetime -
Yours or mine
Now the landscape sestures questions -
How does your body climb
The latitudes beyond me?
Weigh the evenings
Silence, science, secrets;
The wreckage and the prize -
Behind your eyes two could have tasted
Visions raised on vacancy and lies
And a vertical desert;
Where you stand now,
Where i will be measured
Until we finally field
The stations, nations, civilizations
Underground

Cause now i know the lay of land -
Living with the law will come apart
If i care enough i will break your heart
Under the weight of pleasure until
Where we stand aloft
At a vertical desert

I come back here sometimes
Angels fall fireflies ascend out
Beyond the aching skyline
Reckless distances erupt in intoxication
Between the hard
And soft of our evaporations.

Where we stand aloft
At the vertical desert
In the curved air of collapse
And creation
The ballast of chaos and
Gravity's liberations