Only Skin

But I took my fishing pole (fearing your fever)
Down to the swimming hole, where there grows a bitter herb
That blooms but one day a year by the riverside- I'd bring it here:
Apply it gently, to the love you've lent me

While the river was twisting and braiding, the bait bobbed,
And the string sobbed as it cut through the hustling breeze
And I watched how the water was kneading so neatly
Gone treacly
Nearly slowed to a stop in this heat
- Frenzy coiling fresh along the muscles beneath

Press on me: we are restless things
Webs of seaweed are swaddling
You call upon the dusk
Of the musk of a squid
Shot full of ink, unitl you sink in to your crib

Rowing along, among the reeds, among the rushes
I heard your song, before my heart had time to hush it!
Smell of a stone fruit being cut, and being opened
Smell of a low, and of a lazy cinder smoking

And when the fire moves away
Fire moves away, son
Why would you say
I am the last one?

Scrape your knee; it's only skin
Makes the sound of violins
When you cut my hair, and leave the birds the trimmings
I am the happiest woman among all women

-Joanna Newsom