where are you going, dreamy sunset on the plains
where are you going, dearest clouds who bring the rain
i am a motion to be simpler than i could be again
i am a closet open wide for what it contains
so be a paralleled distinction of a farmer’s field
so be a patient of prediction or of pain
so be a call to indignation
or a wind-up doll; a nation
who can’t speak unless its spoken to as frozen terrain
so be a truth forgot in instants of a water main

where are you, restless or pretentious god of earth
where are you, calmer than contagious beggar
can you disguise yourself a martyr
or deny yourself your hunger
when there’s good across the country somewhere
can you be only what you are or what you were

a rooster crows
a maiden moans
a seer shows
forgotten ghosts
all tamed beneath a rose
wilting at dawn

so where are your fevers now, oh lasting truth
where are your smiles behind a ragged few
oh, where have you gone to