Science Excludes So Much That is Existent

SCIENCE EXCLUDES SO MUCH THAT IS EXISTENT


Wanting to wear my ancient green hat
with the ancient leather strap
and stay in
a colony of the unrecognized
was impossible, so
I doffed, stayed
bareheaded among mysteries.

Fused the opaque and the translucent,
fused the unborn and the ghosts,
fused the cut and the scar,
these strangers stepped into spirals
and screams,

Stepped into sackcloth and nakedness,
into the fires of the salamander
and its red cone-shaped incense.

The rhythm was black and then a yellow,
then black again,
yellow again, the motioning was singing,
“Yes, Yes,”
and singing
“No, No.”

The wind-shook flames of a candle
that cried and laughed,

I heard the nighthawk outside,
triumph over an uncertain sky
and an uncertain earth,

find the madrigal in the marsh.

It was an evening of a snow-covered sun
and a moon that was a bonfire.


Duane Locke

Posted over on Arbutus