The Woods of Four dimensions

Washed ashore on the lost island Skin already peeling on the beach Burning from the hot green summer sun Meat melting off to become bone Jumping back into the water Cooling off with the clams and fish Washing the sand off from your leg bones Discarding you clothes Who needs them? A skeletons not so bad You still have your Olmiut And you can still move Walking to the pine forests Making camp in a clearing Making a fire Flames full of burning skulls and snail shell mountains As night peacefully approaches From the dry leaves Found all throughout the woods You make a joint Lighting it on the burning wood In the sky Purple waves of Saturns rings Yellow flashes of Venus Blue paint stokes of Neptune Jupiter’s electric storms As mushrooms grow on your spine You cook some Then keep moving Here, is too dangerous Big cats must be behind every tree Ready to pounce Take a torch in your hand Give yourself a bone tattoo for luck Carved with a charcoal knife And stick two burning coals in your eye sockets Better to see with Into a forgotten cave Perfect to watch the sunrise Lying there in perfect silence As the mint green moss blankets your body Carving a pipe with a stone blade From the wood of a branch Better to smoke more leaf Wake up the next morning Out and about Smiling sun, no longer angry Dancing with her moon brother The sky still purple The clouds everywhere and dark Flowers sing as you take every step No more big cats Only bugs and spirits Spirits inside the trees Or waiting on the high tree tops Their hair ragged and wet Give them dry grass for their beds And dried leaf to smoke Pass it to their hands with gnarled fingers And many callouses One spirits gifts you half a tree Cut down neatly With a deer bone chisel And a oak wooden mallet Carve your human self into the tree Every detail The nose The ears The expensive clothes The pretty rings now melted on the beach All the lovely hair and clear skin Take it and throw it off the beach cliff Watch it smash on the salt rocks Eaten whole by wood crabs The bird of thunder comes With ravens by his tail A respectful bow down at his presence The Frog and The Loon crest Their most elaborate design Burned onto your forehead With the two holy bones of time And the symbol of world and spirit The clouds clear The sun shines upon a distant island Full of enormous pine trees Ten thousand steps away With this Jump from the cliff Glide into the water Sink at first into the kelp But with a quick untangling Off you go to the big pine island Staring at reflections in the water Of yourself and other animals If you dive down too deep the sharks will find you The deep sea creatures will get you Octopus or sharp toothed fish Or a bone whale with crushing jaws So dive down just a little bit To find the underwater masks Masks like those in museums Masks like you made long ago Around a raging, snowy bonfire Smoke like burnt meat Drinking blueberry foam in a can Swim down into the mouths of the masks The massive stone masks Their eyes locked Their wrinkles deep The water cracking with rocks Humming with songs of whales and dolphins Finally at the island Caught in the rapids Saved by the river spirit He picks you by your shoulder bone And drags you up on his raft of sticks He wears a hat of dried sea weed His face is like a killer whale With red face paint under the eyes He wears a patched black cloak And steers his boat with a thin oar Past the roaring currents Over the waterfalls Smashing against the water rocks Fighting off the water rats the size of dinner plates Into the village of the tall men With trees a thousand feet high Houses scraping the clouds The people thirty feet tall Their skin made of stone Stone like brick but shiny and bright Clothes beautiful Made of many seals and deer Painted with untold berries Their hands like an artists drawing Free of any slime or gray goo On every meat rack Hunted whales and wild dogs rest Steal a bit of food A few of their paintings A couple jugs of wine Avoid them, the river spirit told you They’ve never been friendly, he said Their books you steal but you can’t even read Take them back to your new shelter By a creek in the swamps Full of reeds and rich mud and sand Plenty of fish and bones to carve Singing to the nearby frogs Carving necklace from skeletons horn But you can’t stay long The salamander with a pick axe head will be coming soon So back to the lost island you go Make yourself a thin boat with a clean white sheet And sail with the yellow sky