Ebb Tide

This evening, facing the south mountain,

I sit at its foot, coat open,

the whole lake a sorcerer’s potion

quickening the mind.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow

someone tastes the nameless pain

coursing through the body, an egg

bulged on the plate, shrinking as one eats,

a slug of nourishment pulsing in the flesh.

Yesterday, today, tomorrow

it remains: call it consciousness,

however it shifts form,

rising at first light,

flooding our organs,

sinking at blue dusk,

time’s cholesterol.

Blood, saliva, sap of plants,

all that nature feeds

to bless the body’s core,

shattering the stones of impatience.

See how the falling sun, grown fat

on your insomnia,

sets so early. Yet its rusty light

dissolves the gloom within my chest.

Cold starlight sharpens thought.

Go and dance the art that quells

the tumult of the nerves.