Light pure from the all-giving sun
Comes to faces of those up early,
Shocking, sun kissing the eyes.
We step, drenched with the sky’s
Force, senses gilded and goaded.
No haste the day’s begun.
(Up now or consent to lie still.)
So breathing day we come to chill
Arcturus, Sirius, Vega,
Where eyes are kissed to sleep.
Breath mixed with dark to keep
Us passive, tuned low by stars
And all but just heart-beat still.
So alter the tides of light
On human nerves, with the in and out
Of breath. Response we know and repeat
With slow and fast heart-beat.
To die shuts this sentient bliss
In static day and night.
(Up now, or consent to lie still.)
Grieve that the tingling will
Of the friend too active to die
Felt the trap, the hardening hand.
Join the quick, the new-born who stand
Erect and bright in imperative sun
Or spent, consent to lie still.
(Up now, or consent to lie still.)
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