I mistook nebulosity, alien topiaries & atmospheric
static for what it must have been like
in that azoic time warp
when nascent enamel encased this freshly molded planet.
Such a stark, anarchic room
it must have seemed even to its endower. Here: vacant
night sunk in its spikes.
This must be the zenith nirvana the enlightened can’t speak of...
Blind blizzard stampeded—vortex black hole
of white; are others stranded? Did
the huskies retrace their way back to the compound?
Piling snow was you
spelling my name—it was aether,
a spilling of dream. Now I stood gaping at the rift
expanse beyond—wonderstruck—this crystal landscape
flicked open like a catatonic god’s mouth.
If I heard howling, peered into the distance: the wind
was wolves panting.
Beneath a hood of stars I imagined shadows preparing:
hands orchestrated, tendril legs dissected, agnostic alchemy
of a poltergeist’s aurora borealis bonfire.
I tried to clap for warmth: my hands disappeared.
Static of distortion crackled
intimately—first as burning leaves, then as a sonic
boom’s resounding bloom—a cathedral
of ice shuddered into collapse; & I who—
convinced between heaves—heard you breathe—
“Indefinitely”—dared believe.
The northern snow—a sorcery
all its own—sifts upon the pewter woods
& casts a tin sheen over the lunging branches.
Even the splatter of blood seems at peace with itself.
The buck’s flabbergasted innards gush piston-
like; it rubs its flank against the trunks,
loosens a bit the dipped arrow. Admit—
what does the stag envision when its breath drags,
the vast pinecone forest pinpoints
around him & the very air coagulates,
slush in his brain? Vacant wilderness fills,
an hourglass. Cervid mind hones; hollow echo
of cloven moon hooves. Spike coral of wintered
grass crackles. The deer returns to the secrecy
of its den. Wind chime din of icicles
announces the nonexistent bride. Quasi-satisfied,
Cupid wrenches frees his feathered spear
from between venison-ribs—it steams in the air.
While the hart continues to dream-rot, engorged,
antlers molting—peeling bone—matted, gawking
in quiet twilight, falling apart & nevertheless: gorgeous.