AQUATELOS A Thesis Presented to the Faculty ... - Cornell University

8. THE CROSSING
a vastness moves across the vast ice, a vastness with heads
light has yet to be devised, or revisited
suddenly grinders will break free, carry off dark mounds of ice and becomingice
the movement continues, harried by the future, what lies within all ice, though
it is nearly shattered by doubt, needs, by complexes of minerals and minute
electrics
the sky aspires to ice, pressing heads down penitently
peril hovers, a household god, dog to be fed, weaned from wild leanings
a hammered bracelet made from iron not of the sky, that says on itself
i was not made
sheer canyons luminesce when the stars shake their manes on many splendid
aprons
then it is like the fog-wood, the flayed trunks little tucked treasures,
dreamfood red
then all places are home
but the others, the ones ahead, ones behind, the ones in their unspeakable
oneness, all fur and bloodheave
then no home could be
the movement sweepts its last array southeast
winds pick up basketfuls of snow, sheet them out, snatching up what is left in
tracks for its own
the ice regenerates its white, blink rises with the first tarnished moon
soon fire eats the plains
soon the land stifles in a bone sea, terrible blanket of song
much is lost, something other gained
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