Lift your head from wild and wicked sleep where seven-headed serpents hiss soliloquies and while picking snails from the river of the valley you don't see the storm clouds piling up so quietly The rushing river rattlesnakes your legs and baby boy has got you drinking from the dead you lick your lips and paddle for the levee the sinking banks are sifting through your teeth As you float up, see the river skins the valley and strips the sleeping sediment of memory You lift your head from wild and wicked sleep the withered river sputters at your feet and all around the sound is slow and muddy the sunlight scatters pennies through the leaves As you wake up see the river skins the valley you'd love to wash this summer from your memory