old pine floors shellac and sun newly poured some clothes saved
from missed heart sailing in mortar and plank
there was a kid i knew as a boy
now is the beauty i hold on
were we met here flying apart fast
your better truth dear
arm in arm trees and grain
nothing same
matter can be time
south facing windows
body infinite stretching eyes sift gold
brick ships for miles we ask we hear
is place somewhere
to go around under fly over
but never casually pass through
they would fly clouds ride comets
cross witches transit celestial
swim with sword fish challenge oceans around so called america
in long running ships with massive sail
they would climb through agricola alpes apenninus archimedes
carpatus caucasus cordillera
haemus harbinger
jura
pyrenaeus
recti riphaeus rook
secchi spitzbergen
taurus teneriffe.
boldly they would ride into al-qahira ares auqakuh
bahram
dao
harmakhis her-desher hrad huo-hsing
kasei
labou
ma’adim maja maders mangala marikh marte mawrth
nanedi nirgal
reull
shalbatana simud
tiu.
they would seek for eldorado
an osprey appeared in the mist
a falling meteorite into the harbor
almost unseen.
another soared twisting turning
outmaneuvering five crows giving chase.
a third skimmed to me
and became a beetle as it landed on my hand
large pincers for piercing fruit
eyes blood red and large for walking in dark shadows
serrated fangs for injecting venom
long antennae curled into smoke
reaching in my nose and oozing out my ears.
i put it in my mouth chewed and swallowed
so my children leave faint traces of its indigo exoskeleton
with each footstep
fog wanders in not so often
like a thirsty stray dog
walking up the bay
a quiet flock of birds from the west
suddenly all around
becoming the chilling air
lingering
not moving on.
at last melting away
bursting thunderbolts
throb the heads
of wandering few in sunny streets
silent as night,
fearing vomit black like coffee grounds
hiccup hiccup hiccup hiccup hiccup hiccup
aching eyes red turning yellow
sweated skin dried and chill
ears and nose bleeding
stupor delirium deranged sense of return to health
doctors letting blood and dosing mercury
cart rides to hospitals where insane might wail and call.
business stagnates and banks oppress
swimming and flying
weaving ocean and wind into a jet stream,
wood and canvass
carved into an arrow hurtling with its bow,
constantly propelled.
swift upon another swifter away in battle.
carrying cargo with express and beauty.
finally refitted for slave transport.
just a rotting rusting weapon
shipbuilders and merchants
begin the federation
of common universal convenient active
places.
to live
and buffer adversity
durum, red, and white
from rolling amber waves
in frederick, baltimore, harford
york and lancaster.
milled and moved across oceans
feeding armies of empire
and the world.
with star power filtered for a billion years
