vii
a beckoning gesture shooing away
raking light inches abstractions along crumbling facades
as yet another sun streams through melted sand
washing desiccated tesserae clay layered one atop another peering and hidden
in the vast dyed ocean split like a cracked book bleached bone
cicadas rub their wings across wading tongues and whispering corridors and shouting stones
workers whistle and grimace tasks weaving crowds of bobbing heads
bells sound their times making minutes
an eternity of shimmering water laces spun glass
somewhere far away, great fish stir the ocean waves to frothing peaks that touch the sky
and travel the world to here in quiet crooks and columns
diminishing in a thousand little lapping leaks of light
on a thousand burnt brown bricks heavy with eyes
shutting night in a jungle of blind closing cornered buildings
the tide turns the odors of the day
rivers are churned to convoluted courts
saints and angels gesture slow as stones
and as emphatically as whisked fresh cream
mordant stained lives are dipped rush, waddle, wander, wait.
who am I to here sinks in exaltation
a day, a week, a dungeon, jilted generations and gilded millennia make repose
a pigeon sniffs a promenade around a soundless sleeping dog
gulls parade shadows across stony western faces
and multitudinous, circle down in a thousand bubbled mirrors on sweaty orange glasses
art everywhere, holds and presents.
words drift and press to frame fabric folios brimming with watery thoughts
ink spreads with convictions through paper veins
a clenched fist needles laced light through bronze fern forms
the ground beneath our feet fragmented firmly false
everyday, dark weighs light, silence sounds clamber, wealth bloats a floating corpse
swollen with desire, a gold gilt balloon bobs in the web of waves
patinaed statues strike the hours waking wonder to quickly fade to charm
a barrel of sweets recalls sickness to the stomach
so best to safely stay, truth nestles its home hidden in infinity
we squint through Apollo’s masked mirage and cannot say but sing
we may be, we may be,
we are swimming in the shinning sun.
