Without You, This Valley Is Immense (Poetry, Bob Dylan & George Harrison)

Without you, this valley is immense
and unbearably vacant.  Yet, I take
the long way home because
I fear the void that waits
with a cat, a rabbit,
two dogs, five fish
and six chickens
to jump
all over
me.

I go slow
down past
the dunes
and then
the water
deep
below the
surface
feeding
the thorn-
thicket
of Russian
Olives,

the black

mass
of the basalt flow
heavy in the
distance,
a scab
where
earth
broke
open
hot & living.

I never want a pain like that—

where to pulse and throb
and bleed molten rock
is the only way to sustain
against erosion at a profound level,
life always waiting to be
engulfed
by the sea.

No, an island

is no more the life
for me.

The dogs rush out to see me.

They too hate the house without you.
I feed the chickens; the dogs take a crap.
We go in.  Bunny Boy lets
me know he too has been alone
and wants attention.

Perhaps the fish

swim in bliss
oblivious
to this house
ceasing to be home.

I’m about to settle

into blue or fade
to sepia tone
when Lloyd shows
up & I’m glad
together we can hate
Republicans
until you get
home.