This Protector

 I’m going to be

A lake

In the middle
Of a desert

I’m going to be blue
I’m going to be cool

I’m going to be at ease

No matter how hot

It gets around me

I’m going to stay

Even when
It won’t rain

I’m going to be inviting

Even when
Too many show up
And ask me

To explain myself

I’m going to live forever

Even when the sand

Starts creeping up on me

Nothing’s going to change

Nothing’s going to shake me up

Nothing’s going to make me think

I have to count backwards
From a hundred

And leave where I know

I should be

When the house starts to rattle

And the bulldozers

Try telling me

That the rent wasn’t paid

I’ll show ‘em the checks

And the money

That’s not there

And go under the boards

Until I hear the roof come in

And I’ll laugh

Because I’m not there

I’m a lake

I’m a big bucket of water

And the heat won’t tell me

Where to go

Under the boards

I’ll be eating my tuna sandwich

And when they build a new house

It’ll be me in the dirt

With the worms

And my skin won’t be skin

It’ll be the tadpoles

My hair won’t be hair

It’ll be the reeds

The boat you see going by

Will be all the stories

I got told

That I couldn’t forget

The hills of West Virginia

Are drier than a desert

When you need a friend

But I don’t need anything

But that first bit of water

And from there

It’ll spread

Like when you drop

Orange juice

On the kitchen floor

You’ll see me

Get bigger and bigger

Until I’m bigger than the desert

And nothing’s bigger

Than the desert

You’ll see me

Go all across the globe

Like one big ocean

That forgot

To break apart

Nobody will know

I was under the boards

And that I wasn’t tall

Or smart

Or that I was an American

The bulldozers thought they got me

But nothing can get me

If you want the rent

You gotta come see me

While you hold your breath

Ask the fish where I am

And they’ll laugh in your face

Because you don’t think

Something can be so different

From what it was

When you were looking for it

My brain won’t be diseased

Because it’ll be trees

Growing along

The sides of me

I’ll be the place

For people to come

And sit

And feel relief

You’ll never be able

To stop me

From making

Who I am

What I am

Something everybody loves

Just gotta

Become that thing first

But now

I gotta sit tight

But now
I gotta just

Sit tight