Signified, be the expanse of the ice speaking to ice: make ready answer,
give up your burden, the cliffs untrammeled, the law wrapped beneath.
Sing, oceans against the continent, terranes unveiled, ever-shifting,
rock to bone and salt to shore, in the land of the ice and fire.
I know the shape will be ready when I get there, blueprint printed
on the face of the cliffside, the laws of the ages. Be map and territory,
I know the flaw in the stone and the slide of continents:
on a cold hillside, in the dead of night I will know it, and you and I -
territory unmapped. I will hold the burden ungiven and answer.
The sand does not care for the rock it was or the deer for its hoof prints,
in the forest, the snow will melt, become moss-track. I will follow:
sing of snowmelt, hillside, and the years of continents mapped inside.
I am here. Follow this path: I will be your map and territory.
Surrendered, be the slide of the past, the accretion of rings, I
am decaying into this soil I nurture. It is winter: spring must follow,
Surrendered by the law of ages and the slow turn of flies on venison.
I can only say: I am here, I am here, I am here.