[John Riley]

Revision

A Plain, Unknowable

It wasn’t an owl that dropped from its roost
onto the shack’s tin roof undeterred by its bright heat
to watch the wordless dialogue of the people gathered.
One man with a woman’s hands on his hips, pulling him back
as he looked too steadily over the vast expanse,
deeper and wider than he had thought
could be found on this watery planet,
an expanse he knows will be the end for him,
that survival will mean becoming a crow
or a blood-thirsty hawk, teeth ravaged with blood
from the latest dead thing.


***


A Wall, Unscalable

It wasn’t an owl that dropped
from its roost
onto the shack’s tin roof
undeterred by its bright heat
to watch the wordless dialogue
of the people gathered.
One man with a woman’s hands
on his hips, pulling him back
as he looked too steadily
over the vast expanse,
deeper and wider than he had thought
could be found here
on this watery planet,
an expanse he knows
will be the end for him,
that survival will mean
becoming a crow
or a blood-thirsty hawk,
teeth ravaged with blood
from the latest dead thing,
only the base of first life
dragging itself deeper into a dark hole
to wait centuries to fly beneath
a sky’s consummation.