sleights of memory

MOSAIC SEA

Calm bronze serpent zigzags through

November Indian summer.

The northern light is clear

in smoky autumn – mirrors you.

What you cherish will remain

in sleights of memory.

A wheeled mosaic sea

en masque – galactic Halloween

as out of Egypt swam the sun

of Man (Apollinaire

with calumet, plein air)

& left his tempered wrath, his sunken

jealousy behind (dark backward

bones, full fathom five).

Ikhnaton’s beehive,

a honeyed hexagon – God

being pure agape (Manitou,

magnanimous & kind).

Sleepwalking blind

only the dream revives you –

only a breath of homely air

(smoke lifting gracefully,

light’s equanimity).

Chaste akme of the meteor –

a Lincoln logos, omnipresent;

curving profile of a brow

figuring Noah’s prow –

tender basilica to dancing bent.

11.2.16