IX. It Tells Us of the One Who Dwells in the Between
The Shaman took seven steps
into the other
side, and returned to tell us all
something we could not understand,
perhaps to love.
The origin of the steps,
the energy, the direction,
we attempted to detect
with the Geiger Counters of reason
and reconstruction, the compass of ideas
the transit of thought,
all failed to find a boundary,
we could not see another land
or an island
but we knew he spoke
in gestures and incantations,
we knew he conjured the moon.
He spoke in gestures that were incantations
conjured from a silent expanse of incantations.
We knew he did not begin or end
but he would die
somehow like the rest of us.
Recorded rumors said he carried the blue stone
of an alchemist, that it spoke to him.
I never saw such a stone
never heard its voice,
but I knew he kept a fiery bird
in the branches of his chest
and once
I felt its rhythm.
into the other
side, and returned to tell us all
something we could not understand,
perhaps to love.
The origin of the steps,
the energy, the direction,
we attempted to detect
with the Geiger Counters of reason
and reconstruction, the compass of ideas
the transit of thought,
all failed to find a boundary,
we could not see another land
or an island
but we knew he spoke
in gestures and incantations,
we knew he conjured the moon.
He spoke in gestures that were incantations
conjured from a silent expanse of incantations.
We knew he did not begin or end
but he would die
somehow like the rest of us.
Recorded rumors said he carried the blue stone
of an alchemist, that it spoke to him.
I never saw such a stone
never heard its voice,
but I knew he kept a fiery bird
in the branches of his chest
and once
I felt its rhythm.