Rest before you sleep

Rest before you sleep         You’ll be walking for hours   

then         as usual         away from home         your shoes   

in your hand         your feet not yet used to the road   

Perhaps they need to feel the gravel   

to know where they’re headed

A woman I knew         who lived mostly in the woods   

mentioned the danger in presuming to know   

what an animal thinks         The fox         for example   

stopping by her open tent and looking in

I suppose she would’ve felt this way about your feet   

She would’ve said how could anyone know   

what a pair of tired feet need along the way

I would’ve asked her how she knew the feet   

were tired         Such discourse produces nothing

but anything less would be silence   

and that would be intolerable   

I wish I knew why I was telling you this

It’s easier to read the mind of a fox than to guess   

what a man’s about to say when he returns   

from the woods         head full of roots         veins   

more like branches         shoes in one hand         feet   

blistered         and none of this necessarily   

an indication of how the feet feel         what miles   

uphill and back have done to the soles   

and to the small bones that propel a man

It’s safe now         I think         to speak for the fox

who is only as cunning as we say it is   

We’re the only creatures that claim to be anything   

then build a house of facts around the claim

I’ve come for vindication         No point in trying   

to disguise it as a lesser wish         Wake up         stop   

while you still know where you are         Put away   

your elusive country         Give your sleep a rest