i stone eye see
wondering at
the fuss of things made
while even more words
make timberfall from
scythed crescent to
sunset canyon walls
no more false assurances
no more casting out lines
this tightrope is far too thin
but this tightrope is mine
step once a million rivers
passing over and by—
careless memory
carry me to night
You’re learning, says Raven. A bit soft in the head, but at least you’re progressing.
I put another piece of kindling in the flames, keeping the fire. It’s fire season in the forest. While there is no big risk of flames causing mass destruction here, of all places, I try to be mindful of the possibility and restrain the firebug inside. It seems like that critter has vacated anyway, which is just fine by me. My inner firebug got me into as much trouble as fun over the years and I’m tired of manufactured crises.
(more…)longing catnap spells
both eyes draw heavy
sunlight warms
my aged face
dreaming hazy
shadowed clubs and
all smoking cigars...
you look sexy as hell
wearing that smirk
with a stogie in hand
Don’t ask me who this is supposed to be or where we were clouding up the scene, but this dream lingered with me well after I woke up. Much better than the one about my daughter’s giant pet centipede she talked to in hisses, which is another dream I can’t explain.
even dead things have their wild—
campfires hold no sway over their
bone whispers shrouded in mists
should you shadowwalk with me
we will slender through feral spaces
to find our the names and faces
we wore before we were born,
or we may lose our myriad selves
in the fog
Disclosure: My use of those tools most often associated with divination are largely as randomized writing prompts, often with the intent of personal alchemy. They are not intended to be representative of traditional divinatory practice. My personal interpretations (and methods) will likely not agree with those found in popular culture.
she is twin crests
her rivers run free
that is all we
need know
she is the green
her cleft draws in
into the womb
under cairn
stone is all that matters
all words just
nattering on like
whispers on wind
she is wellspring
that is all
we need know
shocked at the shock
whenever i make the claim
that forgetting might
actually be a desirable thing
or when i claim
to be forgotten might
be much the same
what is memory anyway?
ephemeral and fleeting
like a cloudburst in july
or that first vagrant snowflake
on a chill october day
maltrusting and skirting
penumbral lines blurred
against falling rain
cutting lacuna coils
into the night
oh mortal you
trapped outside these
chalked white hills
a song in your head
given to bone
“I told yer ma, that’s a season — tain’t no name for a girl,” her father used to tell her when she was young, before he had choked on all that ash that started falling from the skies and died. He was never one to wear a mask, and refused to cover his face after the Ashfalls began. The particulates, buried deep under the earth until recent years, made quick work of his cigarette-ravaged lungs.
“I n’ver did know why she gone did that, but she made me promise to name y’that after you was born.”
“Maybe it was because my hair was white as snow?” she would always suggest, knowing the answer even as she said it. It was a game they played, this conversation of theirs.
(more…)