night of the novenas

i reach to take the pulse of the moon
and find it shuddering
cold sweat drips from its dim face
beading into the aurora borealis.

do not walk by the shore
tonight do not watch the dawn
your feet will be lashed by the sharpened
spines of dead fish
ancient crustaceans will reach
snapping

drag you
gill-less shell-less
collapse your temples
and scatter your novenas

isis preserve you child
to worship the moon is mad

i am recent
history dredged me gulping
from the amniotic ocean
mutant lungs
struggling to expand
in this frog’s element.

breathing became my first prayer
survival and fear the basis
of my gods.

women who bleed
women who labour
women who squat parellel
that terrible first progeny
repeat and repeat the mutation
until all of us are driven
from the ocean’s womb:
expelled
unto the lap of land
exiled to the uncertain
milk of mountains.

now only the moon
claims us blood and gristle
draws us through the nights
of dying stars towards her
pale and waning face.

great isis you shall not let us go
although all the gods of earth
struggle to keep us from your womb.

we are drawn always
to the lures:
after birth the umbilical cord
curves like a hook in our bellies.

Forty Days of Rain

Forty days of rain
and still no sign of Noah
the ark elusive.
Animals will not pair
these days
nor lie down
quiescent with lions.
The snake is writhing
restless with cold
and will not circle
the hilt of the healing sword.

Physicians cannot cure.
They engage in delicate debate
with spider crab or rock
lobster, eyes submerged.

Along the San Andreas fault
anticipatory trembling
delicious
as the first kiss of lovers.
Mount St. Helens adds heat
to the computations of scholars.
Parthenogenetic virgin
she spews forth
the terrible toothless infant
of our human discontent.

Forty days of rain
and far too many years
outside Eden
prophets sell expedient solutions
to leaders surfeited on holocaust.
Insurance salesmen
stock up on rat poison
and scurry away from sounds
in the walls.

The eyes of the hungry blink.
Like amphibious fish they are
learning to use their thin lungs.