corkscrew slate
the nails wrung wrought
an apostrophe and dust

lead hulks and crawling
cracks...cold and frigid
are the winds through
vines let wild and in the
quiet mildewed settled

in books gone to pot
tales were read and
roasts rare bled fresh
brightness for vegetable
broth

havoc dreams of threshold
like sweepstakes lay curled
on her bent spine of stone
beneath nomadic breath
the little pouts of glorious
peace rain like snows in a
quiet glade
sepulchers of silent worship
the brilliant rainbows of
a river of storms an outpouring
of a grateful deluge

granite skies the odious
colour of wet newsprint
a dragging heel from a
battle torn knee

freshets of eyes lost
and haunted
radiation thieves
and the counters
humming like
an angry clock

and still the beauty
in untouched genes
not torn asunder by
the cruelties

by a sun still flaming clean
on a dirty world
by love existing round fires
while packs rebuild
while moons swell and
grow and snows fall
like burial earth
blighted white and sterile
by cold fire

we huddle
and dream awake
in canyons of eternity