“Vermilion Skies”

Emerge from shadow through shadows
into wilderness isles and isles
where branch is folded over branch,
trunk into trunk,
grass into grass,
and starry night’s ambiance cast
by those cosmic audiences sparkling eyes
looming down long after
the death of vermilion skies
that illuminated the hours I wondered
along these forest lanes

Here now in ether of liquid coal
I wonder,
am I amid giants;
mountains with hearts as big
as these boulders I traverse?
Am I sightless
when subdued sounds
brave the cool, black airs
that imagination’s inks sketched
into omnipresent hues
of beast and ghost,
devil and demon?
Are my hands clasping the toes
of ancient tree,
masters of the groove
through the transitory centuries?

Or am I alone?

My heart herds fear and fascination
and it is incalculable
this nature
that thunders around me
and no matter my willing to grasp
and understand
I can’t help but yearn for light,
the buzz of bees and flies
and mornings of vermilion skies
for through and through,
the wolves that howl,
the elk that bugle,
the owls that hoot,
and the God’s that speak to me
in the spirit of tree
are too big and wise
for one not anchored into the soil
for the hours and hours
years and years
that wisdom needs to flower
and bloom

I am too hungry to wander beyond
where branch is folded over branch,
trunk into trunk,
grass into grass
to sink my fingers into the earth
to remain forever
among the isles and isles