I need to see rugged places,
where untamed things are;
invigorate my soul.
(a wild thing, trammeled
in some hutch-)
Breathe crazed currents deep,
and waken the were-beast
behind my bones:
quiet, small,
domesticated me
molting to craggy unrefinement
jumping out of freckled skin,
free to roam the reaches
of stretched sky
above ginger mop and red beard.
But if I do,
I may never be the same.
Dragonslayers rarely return home
unscarred and nicely kempt
to chat up the neighbors.
My horizons coalesce back
into sheetrock walls and paint.
The only roaring is the AC.
My heart halts its stirring
and drifts off again to shaken sleep.
Still, jagged scenes pause
behind night black heavens
waiting to be taken by the dawn,
cracking through rock and stone,
precipitating splendid life.
I need only to see the rugged places…
a simple man 