A Sinner’s Peace
A poem
this scorching summer burns away a fragile peace
a palm tree’s crown frozen in its mitosis
the tiger lilies sag under shriveled roots
yet there is sanctity in the dragons and fairies
in the stars above spiral roofs
still the stars remain constricted by smoke
glimmer dimmed to a ghost
but every sentence dances on one ivory key
notes build adagios
assemble haunting concertos
an echo nor sage nor rosemary
breath too pure for accidental sinners
instead savor the angels climbing Orion’s tendrils
filter their bliss, scour their dismay
letters resurrect a shaded peace
when speech lies in an unknown void
I watch the beauty for sale
and beg the yellow blooms to whisper
whisper this tale
of rare suspension
strung along an uncertain trapeze
the cracks in this peace are too soon to bear
too late to salvage
anything but sand-glass and grit
this valley’s heat sprouts wedges in a hesitant peace
these words form silver bars
lock pain and deception into a trellised cage
the ivy silences the latent tune
the broadcast of metaphors evaporated
these futile line breaks tossed aside
to toe these faultlines, I cross the mountains and the seas
abandon verse on the highway, every tire deflated
run my fingers over boulder-black scrawls
wince at the coarseness of the spaces
I dread the rising mercury
for my peace will shatter
at one more surge
this castle of words too precarious to stand
this cloud dance hops between epiphany and escape
every burn turn my castle far from the hearth
for every truth burns too bright to bear
the golden chalice is impervious to thorns
not I
not I — scarred at every touch
pirouette around the scales in gabled windows
to reside in yellowed grass
not I — brush layered wounds under foundation
hide every missed cue, lost whisper
fed to the ghosts of my grandfathers
this peace already broken
soon to collapse under this heat
not only is this peace too weak
but my spirit flags midstride
a reservoir exhausted by spring
a current galloping in circles
I climb back in to this peace shattered beyond repair
for the dappled interference enchants the anxious sea
my cage is now an aviary
every bird chants a rainbow of tales
revives an infinite tower of image
there is no other cage I would have
no key worth dividing my stanzas
with the flooding of the sand, the time has come
to leap from a futile peace
into a wildfire of galaxies
