The Laughing Sky

Grifas

I. Canaan

Canaan
This is where I ended
This is forgotten time
set down tortured truth
overturned in full-view
torrent of everlasting mortal remnants
in a box
in the ground
in the air
all around
the sound of laughter at a small horse
standing in a field of mutual wills
asking the fence to run away and hide
beneath the wide open sky

Head pointing skyward
face over neck and back again
to bare the teeth and the dream
the tears on the face of the clock
spinning down a tunnel
toward the everlasting whirlpool desire

In the back seat in the front seat
of memory is all the same
to me and my remembrances are in shapes
I can't tell what they mean to me
is not anything at all

An answer too strong to
pull down and force out
into the open under the stars
pricking out points of light like a raft
searching for port on a lonely river
of menace with foliage pushing the banks
together as eyes watch from the deep
disguises of green belief
in a system of numbers used to degregate and delineate
the soul on the verge of rescue
from the vacuum of the whirlpool
pulling down fast is the way
to go out with a bang on the door
calling me to attention
as I sit at the wooden table
all furtive eyes and sodden glances
out the windows to the darkness
eating up from shoes to my belt
drawing tighter forms around my waist is
naked as I bathe this fantasy dry
in the morning with a sun risen high
above the clouds and moving

Blocking light like apocalypse in danger
of being overrun by bear traps
in the elders' hearts of dismal fires
at the wall
at the plastic within the jail that circles
the trapped beast caged
without a fright or a sight
in the darkness raised skyward
hands held wide open to birth
the anomaly of life
all the attributes of degeneration
in an hour when peace is bliss

The spaghetti runners drawn down
to play with this visage of the past
coming up on here and now
and now it's all forgotten
with the rest of the centuries asleep in the desert
where the flowers bloom as birds die
watching the sound wither and fade
away in the distance I see a runner
sweating down mountains
chasing boulders at its feet

Is all the world laughing?
Or is it just the sky?

Canaan
I'll come for you when
everything is quiet and upset
in the morning after all this ends
is starting up again
to pass your will to mine

Are we both so blind as to cheat
when cheating's done I'll come for you
when everything is quiet
Canaan
For now the broom will mop my years
by dragging down the stairs my fears
into baked Alaska with a sundial pointing north
past the point of no return
left to die wrapped in dust

Here is the mask you've brought me
in the darkness before the light
I find I'm drawn to you and your
power to do what must be done
to mock recipes for disaster
spelled out with grief and starvation
on the ruined faces looking skyward
to the great above and
beyond all that to the other place I've glimpsed
in dreams of gold and plentiful and pain

All in one dream
whipping fragrances and smoke
to where the eyes stare after you
Canaan

II. Darkness Without Snakes