Mountaintop blossoms
blacks out heavens
a sun the gods captured
breaks through crust
pounding free
Luminous
springs burst skyward
Barely time
to scoop up
a handful of
jewels
Dusk fills
the quaking shallow
cave you’ve fled to
You can’t see yet
your gems and gold
will dash It’s
a lesson poorly learned
before a hot snap of
rockmelt
and smokefall hail
taps fears untested
till now in the light
of heart
Outside the vision
of pretty spider-leg
flows in the night
fills eyes hollow
Skin your knees praying
the authors of birdsong
may believe your
promise to live
for others but
there’s no time
or anyone to give to
The heaviest cloud
drifts
snow dust and ash off
shores and on distant
plains of Africa
whose heatscapes would
have felt Arctic
to you in your cave
Colorful
stones lie
near sandaled
feet
your hold lost
breath taken
a rough mold
catches you
crying a prayer
gods alone heard
Have them count
as somebody
