2.
Waiting for Wovoka
For some time the old ones gazed that way,
Then came a seer,
A man named Wovoka.
Who told them he had heard their voices calling in the night to him,
That voices spoke to him of better times soon to come,
That might be brought forth by a special way and a special dance
That would bring to birth a stronger magic than that of Progress,
That would dispel the evil changes.
They listened and they took heart
With the pitiful fervor of the desperate.
He taught his new believers his way and his dance,
And for a time, a fragile time in their trembling twilight
They feltl the spirit of a former time lying still upon their hearts,
A thing beyond the shallow grasp of youth.
They sit stonily, unmoved in their fogs, remembering tales.
When no one looks,
They turn their failing eyes back to the red mesas
To recall the Dance of the Ghosts.
Categories:
stonily, history, native american, tribute,
Form: Free verse
Neptune must have used as parchment
Mother-of-pearl to inscribe his laws
For he’d richly rewarded the oysters
With an oceanic spa.
So, while seeking calm through deliberation
And enjoying the mud bubbles of my bath
Who should I spy in the distance?
But Calamity trudging up the path.
His foot arched out proud and haughty
Like the neck of a noble steed
As he pulled his crustaceous carriage
At a break-neck snail speed.
The mud began to feel like mortar
As I stonily watched him draw near
That audacious, contemptuous clam
Made my heart cry out with fear.
He passed by slow and haughty
Like an imperious, dismissive sigh
But as my tension began to dissipate
He kicked a mudball at my eye.
I watched warily, his insolent passage
Until he was but a tiny speck of dirt
Knowing I'd formed another pearl of wisdom,
From that impetuous, narcissistic squirt.
Categories:
stonily, funny, imagination,
Form: Couplet
From the murky skies...filled with a legion of clouds,
A brave haze descends upon the bastion of granite.
A deafening thud...shakes the fortress,
Alarming and instilling fear over the populace.
The city of stone...awakened...confronted...
The halls...blackened by the absence of torches.
Massive gusts...blustered the flames,
Dispersed echoes...scattered down the corridors,
As the ground quivered from the flap of wings.
A pallid moon illuminates doom,
An enormous silhouette...breathes a heavily rancid breath.
A late night attack from a winged serpent,
Intensifies the threat and terror...outlining defeat!
The royal armies defeat their battles,
But this is a battle that won’t be conquered.
The legends of yore...of gigantic beasts has come to pass.
And without inflicting harm...the silver serpent,
Leapt quietly...back into the night sky from which it came.
Leaving behind the horrific yet wonderful memory,
Of it’s mythic yet colossal presence...retold from the days of yore.
Of the curious eyes...from a stonily beast,
That stopped to see what shined...from the sky.
Categories:
stonily, fantasynight, night,
Form: Free verse