Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Counting Cosmic Rays


The satin black moonless curtain of stars
          fades at the edge
the hard crunch of snow
          crosses the open meadow.
I come puffing clouds of frozen air
          to count cosmic rays

          a cosmic ray is like an invisible pelican
                   wings tucked back
                    dropping out of the ink-black sky
          its mouth scoops open
                   ready to devour the whole universe
          our solid earth-ocean parts,
          the pelican passes through and is gone
                   leaving only a trail of scattered fish
          I come to capture those fish

I walk down a row of down-turned
          concave mirrors as big as search lights
the metal frame groans
          as I turn up the polished mirror
          and pull off the cover
my hand searches the darkness
          for hooks to anchor my cosmic net
I look down and find a face
          looking back at me
          from out of the star strewn sky.

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