Jody Aliesan
 
 

 

          WINTER SOLSTICE 2001

lying on wood planks beside the stove

watching flamelight flicker on beams

and rafters I said to myself I want

to go find some open space and look at the sky

 

so I pulled on fleece-lined jacket watchcap gloves

blew out the candles stirred the coals

and slipped through pantry doors into the dark

cold fastening its mask on my skin a shadow now

 

I moved down steps onto mossy path through

roofless forest alder columns pale in shafts

of half moon’s lamp soft leafmold underfoot

over graded road through open gate onto frozen turf

 

I’m in the graveyard now face up

searching for familiar patterns where are the Dippers

ah Orion’s belt slanting between firs

settles my sight back down to where I stand

 

in a field of frost

sparkling to match the sky

 

but something’s wrong uneven ground

hard tracks from treads of some big

dirtmoving machine what happened here

I whirl around is everyone all right

 

of course everyone’s all right

laid out in familiar patterns on the Earth

under a glittering blanket more all right

than anyone else around except stones and stars

 

Copyright © 2002 Jody Aliesan.  All Rights Reserved.

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