Phantasm
In the days of my delirium
I stroked your phantom hair
gently back where it brushed
the deep ore seams of your brow,
crown of a life’s hard mining
for a fool and spirit king over
the boundless land of no dominions.
I traced the lines and lies of your jaw
as sharp, insinuative, as much a vehicle for
drugged response as any needle
drugged response as any needle
and drifted flying on that wave, in
a megacosm beyond any freight
the day had brought me,
loaded in her barrow of
loaded in her barrow of
dirt and dearth.
Even now your star shines high
soft and inarticulate as fur, its light a web
of hairthin silver spun over the bald world,
far above this quicklime field where ants and I
grunt out the elaborate cosmic prank
of one more day. When vision doubles,
of one more day. When vision doubles,
my fever fixes on its irrational display,
sailing insubstantial across a dark
temporal ocean, empyreal and seductive
sailing insubstantial across a dark
temporal ocean, empyreal and seductive
as that resolution I can
never know, wavering with intermittent
incongruous compassion, a
incongruous compassion, a
wayward balloon blown high to pop
on your tall stonehearted wall.
on your tall stonehearted wall.
Falling in a losing wind, I take
a last sip of dream, just one;
tooled as an orchid’s convolution
rare as a black diamond,
sweeter than any drug.
May~June 2012
Posted for OpenLinkNight at dVerse Poets Pub
Images: Evening Star, by Camille Corot
Orchid, by Mikhail Vrubel
Public domain, via Wikipaintings.org
