What Stars Brought in October

Tuscan stars in a dark season. October
sky as death veilings; a shimmer-water
cobalt-blue in a dark season. By almond

saplings, leaves as rinds, a bevy of
jeterusy flowers.

- in progress

In Brine, Beneath Delos

In Brine, Beneath Delos,

Poseydon praised each mackerel with
A silvery line across mid-body; across

Mid-body and under, draped, a prism
Sheen or spleen of mother-of-pearl

And thin skin. Across the counter, sprawled,
On ice in all its coldness, a mackerel

Limp, its ghost-eyes pierced into skull
Like pearls, its head a part of its body

Under Mackerel Sky, a bevy of dead mackerel
Shells placed as decorum on Day's blue walls.

:

In Delos, a fisherman, in a Pleyt, spotted
A Horse entering the sea and, by it,

Getting swallowed. In Brine, the Horse
Transforms and turns into Poseydon.

In Brine, in rows, steams of uncoloured
Fish, till he arcs in a downhill motion

His spear and turns - clad in damask-
Each fish into a cross between Salmon

And Pirayah, names them Brinelos.

Crevalle Jacks from Nova Scota to Uruguay

From Nova Scota to Uruguay
and Portugal to Angola,

The Crevalle Jacks swim all day
In steams, bodies of draped

Luminosity as silver-green
As mackerel essence, eyes

Like pearls pierced into
The heads - each head a part
Of their broad bodies. In

Delphi, Apollo praised
Each Jack by silvery line

Across mid-body; now across
Mid-waist an prism sheen.

Moth-flocked, I row out in a canoe;
drag a part of the lake with

my paddle. God coats ten bees
in broad daylight. Their bodies

are ten pearls, wings a hymn draped
around them like seaweed. Beaver tail

slap water. Water rise and stick to fur.
I would stare through wood if wood

was air and penetrable.

Stages for: a Butterfly

.4
In a Mimesis of moths, these swallowtails
fly lambent over water - all wings all head

and body. Thorax contraction, then sudden
wing-fluttering. There are two swallowtails

whose wings are dim and frail with age.
Tongues coil and uncoil licking the rests

of a halcyon nest.


.3
A pupa whorls inside the cocoon hanging
like pears: tip and end of body twist like

Nautilus shells. Think fingerprints here,
think sea snake without its scales'

oily gleam of luminosity. Think cat on lap
or snail inside its shell. . .

Larva uncoils as cocoon dilates.


.2
Putti-innocenct, a larva lies stock-still
beneath the leaves, a crawler whose trail behind

is only slime and blank.


.1
The egg is less cream than milk-chroma
when it cracks open. Alcyone swathes

enamel shells.

Rainbow Abalone

Abalone shell: Imagine opaline fields of soap
bubbles, minus spheres. Imagine wet, rainbowy

abalone, whose surface looks like oil on hot
asphalt - that same bubbly, water-coloured

smear & smudge on layered flakes as frail
as thistle stems.

Rainbow Abalone

Abalone shell: Imagine opaline fields of soap
bubbles, minus spheres. Imagine wet rainbow

abalone, whose surface looks like oil on hot
asphalt - that same bubbly, water-coloured

smear & smudge on layered flakes as frail
as thistle stems. Imagine Grand Canyon -

rugged, red rocks on rough landscape.


Watery, rainbowy abalone, whose glossy surface
looks like oil on hot asphalt - it's that same

bubbly, water-colour smear & smudge on layered
flakes, brittle as pompom stems - tender as flesh.

Drowning Pigs

Spilled liquid. Pink, translucent
pigs - pale-coloured, lines of oily

ink. They are drowning: boat on water.
Pigs in water: a pink balloon in blue,

that speck descending down in emptiness.
Their flesh turns whiter; turns dim,

close to blue. It is sinking. Slow,
desperate inhaling. A limp twist of

legs. Then - silent: and never a new
sign of life.