I said, tie me up, tether me to something.
I want to show the universe I’m ok
with being stuck. I craved severe stasis.
Why did everything have to be so dark,
so intense with me? True stasis is contrary
to our nature, contrary to everything,
she told me, and I rolled my eyes,
and I went to the home improvement store,
and I bought some rope, and I presented it
to her like it was a necklace of real pearls,
the kind that pass the teeth test grittily,
and she took it and bound me to a chair.
I’ve always preferred the Jeff Buckley
cover of our song to the Cohen original.
It’s partly the way he sighs at the beginning
of it, like someone who woke up in a meadow
from a dream of drowning in the lake,
the leeches at once swooping doves.
