To the Hand

W.S. Merwin

What the eye sees is a dream of sight

what it wakes to

is a dream of sight

and in the dream

for every real lock

there is only one real key

and it’s in some other dream

now invisible

it’s the key to the one real door

it opens the water and the sky both at once

it’s already in the downward river

with my hand on it

my real hand

and I am saying to the hand

turn

open the river