Poem: Reapers Under Clouds

 

Reapers Under Clouds

 

we glanced at the lapis of

the lazuli while the clouds basked

plump and idle above the swerving

walls of our flaxen chains.

 

not even the precious blue

could outframe so much hubris,

those polyamorous medusae as they floated lazy,

seductive and narcotic above our sweat.

 

they coaxed our feverish moods.

made love to us like ghosts,

admiring the flex of our torsos

while we coiled and swept,

only to soon lose touch.

 

day after day, parade after parade of

simulated worship rose above our scythes.

those menagerie-ish choirs, so innocent,

swilled to swell and storm until

sooner or later we were forced to shoulder

the heave.

 

how careless they were after the climax,

drifting to nestle

into the honey-orange-cherry-red heaven

of distant sundown.

 

at night we labored still

to dream and toss on those hedonistic floats.

we played to their seraphim,

prettified the nightmare

 

when

 

in the foreshadows before dawn,

our flesh wore the same shadow-stripes

as their mathless checkerboard.

 

always it was noon again,

atop our lotus horses, which somehow

rode far above the saddle of our pliant rut.

the drug of our dismal rapture, once more,

offered its hard-bitten pectoral breaths

to the galloping frenzy

of their bliss-torn glide.

 

 

 

 

====================================