goldenrod honeybee

LAMBENT FLUTE

This bumblebee on goldenrod,

hunting the crossroad

at close of summer.  Old

Hobo character – camouflaged

in yellow-black (almost).  Henry’s

obsession with absence.

I’d go the distance

into infinite cornfields, he says.

The river subculture, the dream

of floating back home.

Churnagogue palindrome

or unknown womb... clay baptism.

The cottonwood leaves seem to flow

like golden honey, then –

in Taurida, on the autumn

wind.  Like little heart-ships, so

they swim.  Out of the tight-knit shawl,

out of the everlasting

fire.  None shall be coming

to the Father except by Son, y’all –

by way of Mother.  That absolute

Somebody – a labyrinth

of stars, wherein we are hid

like lightning bugs, or lambent flute

reflections (crane-bone twins).

Flickering far beyond

woodpecker Trebizond,

sleepwalker Knossos – wheeling fins.

8.5.18

Grapes in a landscape

Another topical sketch for Ravenna Diagram, ripped from these headlines :

Israel Aims to Recreate Wine that Jesus and King David Drank

Hope for Nefertiti's Tomb, and Egypt's Economy

ANCIENT AIR

Articulate inchworm, lifting

little arches across

King Tut’s chambers –

shape-shifting hero (glyphic

frogman), testing the submerged

crevasse for Nefertiti.

O Jealous Fertility

Goddess of the Wine-Splurged

Sea!  Accept our offerings –

these cracked amphorae

full of ancient air

& semaphore (dusty grain bins).

Do whatever he tells you, she

directed them; the wine

from prehistoric pine-

nuts will transport us into Galilee.

But you have saved the good wine

until last.  These grapes

are not Israeli types,

nor Palestinian; they shine

in the landscape; this is beautiful.

The purple embroidery

around your lips, my

Queen!  The fiery eye of Yule,

the burning hearth of infantile

desire.  A trim Beatrice

flickers through bound hay-

bales (kayak, limping up the Nile).

12.2.15