HAVE YOU SEEN THE WATER?

Have you seen the water?
Is there blood under my fingernails,
Is there a burn in my eye,
Have there been any more twilights?

Have you seen the water?
Somebody say to me yesterday
Johnny Fairchild, you got to git out a yo head--
Next I looked, they was laying like sculpted ash,
Bloodless and dry.
Didn't even get no time to cry.
Have you seen the water?

It ain't no Jordan,
But have you seen the water?
Christ, but they all licked they lips,
Gave up nervous sighs, and throbbed out blackly,
Like damp candles, smoking
Have you seen the water?

You only blacken if you stick your head out the Dodge windows,
If you crumble yourself in broken moon orchards--
I been inside too long,
But have you seen the water?
It look cold and torrid, I bled myself on the rocks
To get here.
Christ, somebody got to go in.
You die if you git out again,
But I reckon I can float awhile, fighting currents
And drowning like slow maple leaves.
Somebody git my harp all ready--
Johnny Fairchild's clambering into that water,
And there will be no more twilights
Until he as bloodless and dry
As sculpted ash--
But he will have seen the water.