Untie The Clouds

I am the chief of the elements
It's a small world
I no longer know where I have been
What flowers I have smelt along the way
I have known love more intense
Never a laziness in regard
I will sit on this hotel bed
Looking out into the universal space
Trying hard to hear the birds as they fly by
It is rare that I am so alone
And I check my phone for messages
Check my technology for god
Seeing if I still really care
If waking up to a room full of people
Beats waking up alone
The machines all strum together
Leaving nothing for me to do
I will give up this season, this hemisphere
I will give up this faded love
And track back to when I was diseased
And whispering an intense love
When I knew so much in ignorance
Now forgotten with education and stagnation
I want to swim out to the breakers
Swim out to my questions
That all got washed to sea
I sit here on the hotel bed, thinking of the indigenous
What was stolen, returned, given and taken again
I think of the poems and publishers and politicians
Not excluding publicans
And I take my pants off
I take my shirt off, trying to think of my great-grandmother's name
I could stay here forever
Sever all ties, give up the ghost, and change my name to Hank
I could leave right now
Walk down the cold street in my socks and underwear
Until I was taken to the police station
Wrapped in a blanket and offered hot cocoa
I could follow the plan and sulk
Or just swim out to sea
What if I had of stayed in Africa?
What if I had of said 'Te amo' to the king without a crown?
Gone to Seoul and looked for the dead poet's ghost
I could have gone to the temple and prayed
I could have gone to London
I lay on the hotel bed and listen for Byron's ghost
All I hear are cars and lovers
This is the year of the helpless mist
The cloud of god that is bound to his bed