Are You Not A Lightning Bolt?


Non-Existence is a stream
that washes everything,

sparkling through the fallen feather,
the lost engagement ring, the tears,
sharpening the scimitar, defining
its deadly edge by what is honed away.


The space that bubbles an atom

immerses distant supernovae
in a vast and intimate negation.
See how humbly the Lord refuses
any temple
but the temple of dissolving?


Dark matter is fire, fire is breath,

breath is ocean.
Whatever pulses overflows with God,
waves of sex in your body.
Are you not a lightning bolt
of golden wine, poured down
from the "Hu" sound of creation?


Each cell of you a smile
remembering
a womb
where the corners
of her mouth touched,

making spheres of "O!"
the first word of every prayer,
the black hole containing
all you will ever need to unlearn?

A swirl of secret happiness

weaves these sticks in a flicker's nest,
a galaxy, a pine cone, the up-spun
Swainson's thrush song,
a staircase
in the tower
of your backbone.

Whatever spirals before you now

is the final revelation, instantly gone.
It is all one standing wave
arising through genuflection.
The rhythm of your breast.

The bewilderment of Jesus.
the violin of a cricket's legs.
Throb of moon path on the sea.


Throw yourself on the linoleum.

There is no other freedom.



Painting by Anne-Marie Zilberman

No comments: