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| © mdlockhart 2009 |
charcoal cold, she spreads herself above him
noble, wanton, she hides, she hides behind
the petty coats of the azure-breathing forest
tense and groaning, they sway beneath her,
kaleidoscopic dancers, verdant in the planet's breath
i also sway, lost in the darkening
in the spider-spinning cacophony of this aging warrior
he is oblivious, lost in his own fuming worship
arms spread wide and full of shadow lines
twisted, scar-knurled and full of fate
he is the former opulence
brittle trailing of the ether's bridal gown
now yellowed and ashed, he is alone
noble, wanton, she hides, she hides behind
the petty coats of the azure-breathing forest
tense and groaning, they sway beneath her,
kaleidoscopic dancers, verdant in the planet's breath
i also sway, lost in the darkening
in the spider-spinning cacophony of this aging warrior
he is oblivious, lost in his own fuming worship
arms spread wide and full of shadow lines
twisted, scar-knurled and full of fate
he is the former opulence
brittle trailing of the ether's bridal gown
now yellowed and ashed, he is alone
an anachronism
hidden in among the lush present
hidden in among the lush present
besieged by a green youth, callous, callow
not imbued with a proper
not imbued with a proper
respect, but in him there is a refusal
arthritic and T-boned, his crooked palms raise
eternally to the stinging rain
arthritic and T-boned, his crooked palms raise
eternally to the stinging rain
---
he shakes and cracks within her dispassionate embrace
he shakes and cracks within her dispassionate embrace
straining towards the deluge, skeletal
it spills, her showers
like sand between bony fingers
and rigid, impotent, he rattles and rails
the mistress, un-aged, dances
rushing between her younger lovers’ groaning limbs
her laughter and disdain rolling
deeply, booming in the shadow
through cloud and over root
he strains, zealot rigid
unbending, spine fused by age and frustration
no possible supplication
is left to him
proud, but diminished
he stands as mute witness to
the absolute constant of mutability
the virginal truth of change
the glare of what may be
to a dodgy and skittish present
---
tall, he prophesies
a blood-full, onyx sky swollen above
gyres about him with her younger lovers
slashes him with tears, explodes in ecstasy
amplified echoes of his angst
desperate, he barks splinters
against the sky that cuckolds him
summons his own thunder and,
one last time, without resignation
bends back to stare into her weeping mien
i hear his cracking sigh,
see him kneel and fall
warmly, the scent of her full and sweet
he crashes to the forest floor
and returns, returns to the earth
the young dance, oblivious above him, but i see
as i see her, shuddering as she nods
a final thunder head bowing to earth
as with a flourish, a final tear she
mourns into the spreading darkness
© mdlockhart 2007
(Up the mountain in the first months after the inversion started, I found one deciduous tree at over 7000 ft, 600 or 700 feet above any other deciduous. It was dead, but beautiful, held up by the pines around it. The poem isn't about that tree, one I saw fall in a wind storm in Alberta, but it could be. Will be. One day.)
