“Keeping the Faith,” “Vespers,” and “Ganymede”

You belay each old conception

Clean into the next room.

Meanwhile, I turn my heart over

To some crooked star. It burns

Our retinas like some demonic vision; we both

Mouth “gravitas” in our mirrored shades.

That joke isn’t all I keep inside! Although

The irony only works one way.

Of course it’s no secret that something

Is up. Post-solar eclipse, the sky starts falling;

Stars pool in the low spots, singing the hem

Of your dress. Light years away, maybe

It’s already ended; the new beginning 

We were promised at our local coordinates.

Here on earth, things haven’t been quite right

Since time began (building a temple out of the ashes).

Still, some folks keep the faith;

Walk a long mile, live life in the way.

You and I, we  just stare at the liquid

Expanse of the night, illuminated by

This burning myth. My heart is

Bent beyond belief and fluttering

In the vacuum; it pulls all these new dimensions

Into focus, light years away in the next room.

Marry me, if you take my meaning: deep

In the Appalachians, another vespertine

Pregnancy; I’ll beg for absolution

Even if it never comes.

Take my name

(Or don’t if you don’t want to);

I never got to love like I love you

Now. The range of my emotions, these

Peaks and valleys, my heart

set off

Against the open door of evening;

A little baby swinging from the rafters,

My lofty dreams incarnate, violence

Finally manifest.

I love you

Best when you are breathing, most

When you are caring for yourself;

It doesn’t have to change the way we live

But I know it will, and I

will miss

Our daily chatter, our incalculable resolve;

Our quiet in the gloaming; each

And every petulant outburst

When the copse is full of song.

Breath and breathing; don’t

Weep for me, Ganymede.

I will raise a new moon

To welcome the season.

Be brave, satellite, ancient

Wasteland in the warring sky;

Naturally hesitant

To strike without a reason.

Enough talk! Save that precious air

For the masses, rapt in old solar

Flares, the extravagant spectrum

Blinding from behind the stone.

I’ll be long gone when the circle breaks,

Hidden in the shallow rings

That spin through deep space, playing

For a chance at getting older.

Rapid expansion: I feel

My lungs perform intricate dances,

Brittle bones stretched out against

The gravity of it all. Quiet glares

Repeat the center never holds, the past

Repeats itself; the new moon

Has to choose an heiress while she learns how

To breathe, to hesitate and reprimand.

Celestial body, just enough

To balance out the galaxy;

A wading pool of stone and dust,

However fine a stone can be

After years of tossing, restless

In the cosmic river bed; I can

Only pray this life eclipsed

Will be enough in turn, my Ganymede.