Sophia stands whirling with a red dress on
bare feet tinted by the dust of your soul
The sky falls open as it abandons the pole
every horizon pulled loose from its anchor
Fifty years after the world's end, the victor
returns to silence and shadow where ghosts wait
Another Pentecost showers fire the angels ate
burning pieces of divine flesh to soothe the throat
The hem of Sophia's dress, blazing red, whips its float
against the winds that summon reluctant dawn.
Next poem in the Contraries loop
maiden whipcord wrestle puberty eminence
gristle tailbone pumice sparkling detest
wrinkle fish endocrine navigate expressed
helpful parsnips harbor unmarked filter parts
mandarin expletives control ribbon song starts
grace speed internal failure matchbook constipation
taking hidden rusted call thorough elevation
watch wander hot spell thistle bound excuse
holy facial nerve systemic replacement loose
ointment seizure separate allophonic suspense
Next poem in the Otherness loop
hermetic desuetude wet wipes unwrap marvels
unquiet handles fan lewd terminate marvels
wish-craft hesitance reverb spindle quiescence
develop able cross-glued stamina extract marvels
never extension parallel ecstasy manumit
allosaur babble terranean hoot little marvels
never steam unwise undulate whisper elegance
unbought equine shoed hostler vineyard marvels
whittle excess poet facet millibar susurration
upset humanesque endued quizzical instantiate marvels
Gray dust, brown grass: the blue tombstone
wears a crown of melting crystals.
The season of grief spins out of
its mnemonic center; hurricanes flower.
"There will be showers of blessings";
the old horse shifts in its splintered stall.
Deep in black thunderheads, brightness stirs;
across the flat wet field, rows of green seedlings.
Bright electric arrows burning the air,
torn words pasted over a breached wall.
Raw voices swept together with a tattered broom
cling to motes of swarming dust
Extravagence detail frog-hips water below
undine marvel excrete darling fishtails retake
Let Arjuna design retail outlets at Meru's foot!
Let Shakuni toss dice into Kubera's private lake!
Anodyne pubescent collate nasal recoil
extension failure grimoire pentagonal hells
Odysseus climbs out of the murderous surf,
naked and afraid, to find the laundromat closed.
Sacral legation tubular remove ecstatic
granular feast monarch atmosphere reluctance
After the Temptation, angels bring Jesus food and drink—
tender lamb skewered with onions, the blood of broken grapes
I am blind in my need for You,
my voice stopped by utter longing.
The Little Dry Fork ceases its flow,
becomes a chain of isolate pools.
Words return to silence every moment,
inarticulate bronchial hacking.
Outside the Quaker Meeting,
a wren plays on rain-filmed stone.
Let the one who has visions
be as though he saw dust.
And the one who has no vision—
let her be as if her eyes drank glory.
The dust You awoke
has followed You home again.
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