Starfall
At the end of shared hours
when Orion comes down
different, half-human
dancing on stick legs
shaking that starry ass
wrapped in tigerbones rattling
and his buskins on fire,
when dust wind
strips the juniper and
ice roofs her sloe-eyed collection,
when teeth tease at cardboard,
when giants
below
once contained stir and wake,
pound the fragile ceiling
till dry-sucked stones shake,
then I step out with you here
in the chaos men make, where
our dance is illegal, semi-ruined as Orion
our possibilities too tight
our red shoes on fire,
while the plague ship sinks last
while the rough beast drinks chance.
In the deep doubt of sleep
it's dance, drop or cry
and we
are too young to die
too old to weep.
~February 2014
posted for real toads
Challenge: Get Listed
Kenia Cris has chosen a science fiction focus for her word list prompt, and has used words from the Philip K Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (loosely reincarnated in the movie Bladerunner,) which portrays a bleak, dystopian future that seems more likely and less sci-fi with every passing year. I have borrowed thirteen or so of these words here; for the full list see the Toads link above.
Process note: The Eastern Red Cedar(Juniperus virginiana) has berries that are blue-black in winter, like the berries of the blackthorn known as sloe. On stanza two: We have had drought, extreme cold, and ice storms here this winter, and 100-plus earthquakes and tremors in the last few days. Dry-sucked refers to the process of fracking.
Top Image: Untitled,1978, by Zdislav Beksinksi via wikipaintings.org
May be protected by copyright. Posted here under fair use guidelines.
Footer: Study for the Spanish Dance, 1879, by John Singer Sargent
Public Domain, via wikipaintings.org
