For In All This Aching Beauty..

 

rotating the numb grey kaleidoscope
hues and textures of scraped-up old snow
as liminal as heaps of ash swirls
another year melds and melts
layers and layers of static and stasis overlay
the glinting glowering fractals sharded
offer their spindly morphing branches for perching mocking owls
and how they stare as you seem to sway..

lush hints of emeral jar
wavering beams of unenticing sunlight threaten to only melt and blind and bake
falllen crimson leaves splash their spilt rusted drops
the baleful moon as cold as saturn relates..

in patches angular reeds so stark break through
cracking the icy lake
where water gushes and gulps for oxygen
timorous gasping fish bubble up as if for prayer
blasts of trapped poison steam-release
and float up to seal away the heavens
from the fathomless deep where only oily darkness dwells..

but ovals of smoke rise and spiral and elongate from a different valley distant
are they signals of rescue
or cries for help
or deeply encoded messages for the long-lost but open-hearted traveller
come hither..come hither
there is something here for you
follow the charcoaled trails on sapphire..

follow the charcoaled trails on sapphire..
gently walk past the deer oracles as their onyx eyes gaze upon you
at nightfall the curlicues of smoke plumes will still visibly mark the cobalt night
regard the scent trails entwining falling rain as limpid shadow-light 
your eyes so accustomed to grey so vivid will be the unextinguished lick of flame
so nocturnal you will so easily discern the distant sparks veiled 
pain can still offer ways away
pain can still tilt your world a warmer way..

follow the charcoaled trails on sapphire
and allow the iridescence of the moonlit dew drop necklaces to star-wish for you
and when the dawn rises inhale the bracing and rich petrichor nectar
even the yielding soil and fallen twigs generously teem with purposeful cycles
and you are immersed as part of this so let the embracing ozonic air cleanse you
and wash away your copious tears of salt so draining
that distant birdsong can heal you
that distant birdsong hears you..
for in all this aching beauty
is the you of this 
in all of this..