Thermocline

the thermocline is the interface where temperature breaks

where the warm layer above and the cold layer below makes

a boundary so sharp you can feel it on your skin, a wall

not a gradient, a cut, an edge, the warm and cold recall

two different worlds existing in the same water

the thermocline is where one world ends and the other

begins without announcement, no sign, no preparation

just the sudden cold fact of a different information

i passed through my thermocline at twenty six or seven

the warm layer above was comfortable and even

had its beauty, the warmth of not yet knowing

the warmth of the incomplete, the warmth of still growing

without the knowledge of the cost then the boundary

then the sudden cold intelligence, the foundry

where the metal of who you are gets its actual test

and the warm layer you came from fails to interest

you anymore not because it was false

but because the cold below has different laws

and the laws are truer, harder, more demanding

of precision guess the thermocline is the landing

strip for the version of yourself that costs something

the warm version was real but the cold version is the one thats unbluffing

the sax is playing the temperature difference

playing the gradient, the resistance

of one body of water against another

the cold doesnt move up and the warm doesnt bother

to descend they press against each other at the line

and the line holds, the thermocline holds, and I

have been holding at mine ever since I crossed it

ever since I paid whatever crossing it cost it

costs your previous self, costs the easy narrative

costs the warm water biography you were trying to live

before the cold fact of your actual subject matter

rose to meet you at the line and made the comfortable shatter

not violently, thermoclines dont shatter, they clarify

they make the boundary legible, they qualify

the nature of the two worlds and once youve felt the cut

of that cold intelligence, the warm layer above is shut

to you not because your bitter, not because your cold yourself

but because the information differential puts the self

on one side of the line permanently, you are cold water now

you are deep intelligence now, you are the how

of the thing rather than the what, you are the process

not the product and the thermocline is where you confess

that to yourself for the first time without flinching

the thermocline is the albums hinge, the cinching

point where the warm water songs end

and the cold water record begins to send

its different signal, ive been cold water

since the crossing, this album is the cold water

the temperature just broke

I didnt feel it coming

and the warm water above me

is a different country now

i visit it in memory

i speak its language with an accent

the thermocline gave me an accent

in every room I enter

from below