–carnelian 

shadows play between cracks 

salt-scarlet    shell-sweeper 
             moss-fruit     silver-first 

shadows twist into webs
      cosmos-thick    blooming 

into layers of mystery     white heat  
             shines from the stone’s inside    leaking  

into edges    rain diadem   poison  
     bud   peak of eternal flies 

there is otherworldly beauty beneath us 
             points of starlight    a green eye sleeping  

within the mountain     the remains
     of those who came before 

we don’t have names for them    but  
            we feel them as thought 

what are we? serpents of lost 
     apples    a yellow flower slashing 

mineral eyes    a delicate shinbone 
            bursting its holy husk    flashes 

of a red god    blood stone  
     red heart bleeding into rock 

& we will sing you the songs of the living 
             Sing to us of your feathered dogs   your city  

of ashes    your venom clouds    your resurrection 
     in blue waves    you swallow  

our light    our pale  
             legs    our velvet insurrection