Climb - Joe Henry

Here lies Billy the Kid, here lies his gun— here lies The Light of the World

As quick as the dead

As gone as the sun;

Raised like a tent now

Where heads bow, are bent down to a gypsy moth roosting home— a heart to be

consumed

By hunger alone

Here lies the way I knew how to harbor my mind— there rolls a ship of the sea

Steady as she goes

Determined to climb:

To fly like a kite above

The near and the near enough

Tugging your arms through their sleeves— a heart needing only to feel

What hunger believes

What I loved loved me back, let me go— met my stare, heard me out

Sang to me

What I couldn’t know;

Here lies the best of us

And here stand the rest of us: dying, trying not to let on—

A heart surrendering everything hunger has won

Here lies Billy the Kid, here lies his gun— here lies The Light of the World

As quick as the dead

As gone as the sun