Cleft Earth, Chasm, Eye
Alan Sondheim
Between everything
the open chasm, furrow of one hill, cleft of pine
and bark, furrow of bark, theother,knived or vertical,
stutter of rack, shudder of pebble in flight
headlong or night-dark, illumined by fungus, by mold of cloud
sodden, invisible, lids itself, as eye guards, O chaos
hovered with edge raged, cliff-moss shattered, brine-moss in suspense
What blinded, soars, shut frozen, feet beyond grasp
of loam, black earth, green, black, unuttered fall?
Devoured of heart, intestine
devoured of lung or breath of flesh, of blood turned hard
or flesh, frozen upon woodÕs descent, splintered
sinew, tendon, narrow-bone flight across
ridge, ledge, across ice-edge, frost bridged
and fallen, frost-lip, snow-lip, tunneled frost
Between everything cloud swarms, sinks unbidden,
unseen, cauldrons of overturning, tubes of flesh and bronze,
worlding slow pincers, crackle of logs spilled, split
by fire, frozen,