First, you are a source of luminous wonder
Your brilliance fills the sky.
Then, a seizure of darkness
Collapses your vertebral tower and boats sink
In the harbor. A lighthouse pulls one
Hell of a shadow from inevitable blue depths. Haven’t you
Been the night-shredding radiance so many seek
Safe passage from? All the mythic creatures
Human hands have conjured from the depths come
Barreling towards the surface now.
The ocean floor raises continents
When it shudders. Your shaking
Is a séance. Summons ghosts from your throat.
The light flash behind your eyes sends night
Mares plunging into the ocean. Lighthouse
Zoetrope. See how the islands
Dress themselves with the illusion
Of dance. How the wreckage
Pulls itself back together with a crack
Like leg bones snapping.
One minute you are alive with such incredible light.
The next, phantoms peel themselves
From the clouds. An island forest grows haunted
With all the ships run ashore.
Somewhere in that forest, a tree falls
And crushes the only witness.
