by Carella Keil
Pastoral, aleatoric
Midweek god-seats in the opera house & divine
obsession—that one conductor, silver fox who moved
like the river like the gannet like the minnow like
nothing composed or not could deny him element
& seamless spiral diving between. Pure grace we’d murmur
& the herd of strings followed him to drink it, amen.
Afterward we’d wander the town under the cold staves
of powerlines, singing star-note, moth-note. One glass night
the fat moon came up breve & we lost all time fighting
about religion, whether our dear & beastly instruments
were directionless. Let me tell you how a heart is a vortex
with a hide stretched over it. How it marks holy time
in the dark. Your hands hunted, gathered, tripped & fell
from Orion to my chest, remembering all sound is first born
as a shiver. A fox screams diva & up the hill a pasture turns the page
& the grass at night is a whole new movement. I take you to the wire
where something died, string sinew around the canny old soundbox
of the world. Wind snakes from the river unbidden, plucks us
all three alive. You repeat god—gods— & music let wild it might be
the sweetest storm coming & it might be angels, moaning.
Ankh Spice is a queer Aotearoa New Zealand poet, author of The Water Engine (Femme Salvé Books). To his ongoing delight, his poetry is well-published & prizewinning, including a home in The Poetry Archive, and is multiply nominated for the Pushcart Prize/Best of the Net.
Website: www.ankhspice-seagoatscreamspoetry.com, Twitter: @SeaGoatScreams, Facebook: @AnkhSpiceSeaGoatScreamsPoetry.
Carella Keil is a writer and digital artist who splits her time between the ethereal world of dreams, and Toronto, Canada, depending on the weather. Her art has appeared recently on the covers of Glassworks Magazine, Colors: The Magazine, and Frost Meadow Review, and is forthcoming on the cover of Straylight Magazine. Her art has also been featured in Skyie Magazine, Existere, Burningword, Chestnut Review and The Field Guide Poetry Magazine. instagram.com/catalogue.of.dreams twitter.com/catalogofdream.