rarelyunusual

About the Lakes, there is quietness,
a sense of dislocation; an ocean cut
from ancient seas before there was

agreement. Maple trees with aspen, pine,
beneath a secrecy so rare it breathes
unknown. Bone by bone, the bodies go

around the big, big water, up, up
into Aurora. One root beside one root,
the deep slow bruise, the fall, begins

in the circle of Great Spirits.
Small truths bloom within the greens,
oranges & yellow. Reds fuel the fire & fuse

the passionate departure, recycle in rebirth.
Far off, a wolf makes love. Hunger pauses,
breaks, quivers like crystal one second,

one flicker of space on the spine, conviction
close & perilous. The stillness, Goddess, moon.
God smiles, withdraws, recedes

into diminutive, the land becomes horizon.
The shield absorbs relentless stars
& all that was, that ever is, forever

circles back & disappears into the rise,
eternity, the radius, that place before consensus
& the noise of Ionian wind.