Jellyfish, monkeys, and frogs, going hiking,
Going snorkeling, eating fish eyes, pretending
To be a beached mermaid. There’ll be none of that
Here. Here it is winter, sere and severe. Life
Consists of scattered free range cattle wandering
Into ice-rimmed roads, ravens scavenging, a hawk
Searching everywhere. Others may hike through
The Joshua trees, up into the scenic canyons,
But this body will not hike. In any case,
Something weirder and more wonderful
Than lovely, lively nature’s on its way. Skies
Burst with strange activity, luminous objects
Born from dying stars, the brightest quasar
Ever seen, peculiar collections of lenses,
Nurseries, factories, an outburst so bright
It could be ejecta from a star being eaten
By a black hole aborning. Heavens, heavens,
What wet language we use for the heavenly.
From the side of the gravel road, deep
In one canyon past its ghost town with a cafe
Boarded up for decades, barely standing,
A curled cardboard OPEN sign in the window,
The twilight loses its blue and its purple,
And there are no lights below or high in flight
To take away from the night. No ships up there
Visible with living, edible eyes. Spare me.
You can spare me. You don’t need me.
I’m extra, leftover, pure surplus material,
A surplus terrestrial. Let them come down
And get me. Let them take me. Let me go.
Daughter is down in the tropics. Why not
Hitch a ride on a glow to visit her there?
But nothing comes down from the night
Except the various exploding lights, silent
From here. Body feels it, though. Body knows.
Something weirder and more wonderful
Than lively, lovely nature’s on its way. So stay.
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