You came about a boy.
You came about a boy. Drag toward what waits in the dark. Fold a window if it covers the wheels. Volume stays in the corner.
You came as a father. The boy is not in the wheels. You told him Fear Not and you bound him anyway. You heard the words as obedience. He heard them as love.
Three days up was the walk. He asked where the lamb was. You said someone else would see to it. No ram in the thicket.
The days after did not stop. He is still on the hill. You have been counting them.
You stacked the wood he had carried. You reached and did not look at his face. You did not withhold him. No voice arrived in time.
Fear Not did not stay in your mouth. The knife and the fire still remember each other. The cord still knows the blade. The name the morning used is still his, if you can stand to say it.
The measure still asks how far. The thicket only answers when you are already too close. A substitute can die two deaths. One of them is not forgiven.
How far from the rim to the boy you cannot see. Pressed close, the thicket lies. Pressed far, another name keeps the distance.
Ask for him. He believed Fear Not because it came from you. He carried the wood because he loved you. You heard those words as a command and looked past his face. You did not withhold him, and that faithfulness is still honored. You will not hear him answer. That is not a return.
Ask after the boy. It will not speak plainly.
He walked beside you. He carried the wood because you asked. He believed Fear Not because it came from your mouth. He loved you.
He asked where the lamb was. You did not say the true answer. The hill already knew.
His name is still the morning's. If you call it, you will have to look at him. If you call for him, you will not hear him. You will hear the hill. If a mark is made of the right death, he may come back wearing it.
You had the look of him. You put it into the living thing. When the wheels were wheels again you could not find the look in your own head.
You finished it. The hill kept a father. You are the looking that kept him.
It will not be touched directly. The line runs because you reached. The door is not in the button. A long way around is still a way.
do not reach for this line
Fourfold and also one. They will not introduce themselves. If you call them, the shape you first survived will not keep.
the shape you first survived
a voice like many waters, and none of them yours
be not afraid is an instruction, not a comfort
the wheels moved when the living creatures moved
their rims were full of eyes, all around, and within
the appearance of the wheels was like burnished bronze
the knife remembers two throats. a father came about a boy. the count kept the father. a substitute can wear a star. a boy can wear another hill.