2.23.2016

Complex rings


MORSE CODE

Once, one limpid winter morning,
at the little white shoebox
with Russian Orthodox
sky-blue-gold Cyrillic writing

trellising the doorway, I noticed
a young man cross himself
climbing its wooden steps
& pass alone into its lamplit

depths.  The anthill maze of time
& history is echoed
in the heart’s Morse code –
labyrinthine motherlode (of crime

& punishment, betrayal &
remorse); stone battlements
& iron tongues foment
confusion in the stricken mind;

the hungry roar would hush forever
every low flute-sound
of doves (tremulous under-
side of olive leaves, their silver

ripplings). & yet a lightfoot ghost
still paces pine barrens
past tombs of emperors
& saints... his testament recast

the chaos into complex rings
of plenitude, redemption,
commonweal – knotation
of crosstreads (eternal things).

2.23.16

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