In the thin place between the word and the thing,
at the wall's inside, old wires intertwine
and cockroaches are the hieroglyphs of home.

I take your hand in these last nights and wait
beside the Styx on a green bank that runs to the wood,
in the thin place between the word and the thing.

And we stand all night gazing at the hard water
and cannot see the other side. Still in the ward
the neon obscures the hieroglyphs of home.

We've come this far but are stubborn at the pier
beside the boat's bob and the oars unused
in the thin place between the word and the thing.

And our breaths intertwine on the world's edge
- I've stood inside the Newgrange tomb - like
three coils that are the hieroglyphs of home.

A speck on the near horizon! Charon comes
but not tonight. And my fingers tell you I can't go
past the thin place between the word and the thing,
nor write the way for you, in the hieroglyphs of home.