DISTEMPER
Looking into the glassy crucifix of water.
slits of rock form stigmata across creviced limestone--
green pools with an occasional fish passing
air bubbles to the top
the eerie night crumbling under shafts of starlight
with the smell of hemlock pods & cedar bringing
nard and precious stone within
crowns of natural thorn--
this body of muskeg pressed onto
aromatic herbs then borne away
along the road to a wooded Calvary and
the sense of Christ
in that light at dawn.
[47]
NIGHT WINDS
They made us sit alphabetically in rows.
Green oranges are sprayed systematically
in volcanic soil near pummelled surf.
One stood to answer questions,
was called after the surname,
requested permission for trivials.
Outrigger canoes with barnacles in tow splash
menacingly near coral reefs. Under a lazy orange-ripple
moon halfing itself between stages of growth,
night winds taunt puffish clouds.
[48]
AMHERST ISLAND
In winter, you were
a flash of light,
tundra against
Arctic floor
Warm breath
stirred yr
summer's breast
and I saw
windblown hair
the colour of kelp
transfix
the lavender print
of a scalp strewn
shore
Later,
tiny bits
from
a calico dress
became domiciled wings
off butterflies,
miniature bitterns
ever more shadowy
strewn across the Barrens,
an unbridled strength from that
Faraway isle released to orchestrate sunlight
amongst all colonies that flower--
a statuesque Red Admiral,
Banded Purple,
feckless Comma
all aswirl to the
pipes of a Devil's Paintbrush,
stranded drumfish, sage,
and tubercular ragwort
[49]