Blue Spine

The wind broke the spine of the sky. 

The vulture spread its wings and sailed 

mirrorless in the deep heavens. 

The black dot the period to all lives below it. 

The rain came with thin fangs, falling like martyrs.

I read, hiding in silence as water dripped 

all around me and my protected porch.

The blue spine was broken into gray haze, 

shattered like dust as the rain came, 

and flooded all things below. 

The water rose. 

The vulture flew onward, 

in its endless circle, 

pantomiming, 

choreographing 

the ouroboros 

born into its blood stream.

My students in their scattered homes 

put on boots, buttoned jackets

And stared as the water came

Leaking through their doors.

Their parents, red and sweating

In the paper mills, 

made their children’s faces

From paper mache

So they might kiss them

Goodnight as the flooding

Filled the valley and sloshed 

above the mountain tops.

And the rain tickled the earth

And I wrote my poems

As the vulture ate its tail

And licked its beak, damp with hunger.