evening's wild flower opens heavenward
at blue close of day
evening's flower
growing heavy


wild violets
ruby red
make a chain
around her head


ruby violets
royal purple
bring her pearls
in sheets of oyster


my angel walks,
with steps on fallen petals
of an opal rose over water
drifting,
is coming.
my breath shatters her.

thus I must voyage outside of breathing life,
outside of navigatable spheres,
from where I took flesh as my gold
and blood as my ruby,
to where await is action
and obedience, domination.


so tell me:
how do you know whither you go,
when nobody sees
the breath I breathe?
and what do you call the thin edge between
air and the ocean profound,
when it is a door
through which pass the drowned?


imperceptible tears
in the fabric of air,
as after the knifing
of water by lightning.
here pass silver memory fish,
emerge fabulous message birds.


1982-83 Bordeaux                       next->