In the Dark

      I held my child's hand down to the grave
      And traced his comet's roaring going with my breath,
      Sorrowing sorrow until the sea's moon gave
      Its thousand salt prayers up in sprays
5     Scattering the brine-shrived gulls on the shingle
      To spread stars aloft, and each a different way,
      As the waves fell down from their mingle
      And found a thousand moons in their crossways splash
      And told my broken, washed heart hush.
10    O I was a dying moon in the ocean's rove
      And with her million wants my wants still move,
      To her breaking crescent I still squeak my eye
      That dissolves in her fabulous crooks;
      Locked frost-cursed in my own godawful life
15    I freezed grieving past midnight's strife, 
      Until night on a moonstruck gravestone broke
      And harrowing dawn gave my soul a saint's look
      And shined on all my wonderful lies like love.
      Out of the four-ways Jordan of my heart
20    Out of the splendid cincture of my pricking ribs
      Out of the mercury furnaces in my brain
      Out of my own dear hollow bailiwick rolling
      I walked stalking my bones' marrow-trail
      Scouted brawling galaxies from my blind bloods
25    Rode my star-fashioning veins to their black skies--
      And, stepping the pulsing pathways of the stars,
      I took my place among the meteors in the dark.

 

From the collection "Divine Revolt"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.