[Sleeping sister of a farther sky]
Sleeping sister of a farther sky,
dropped from zenith like a tender tone,
the lucid apex of a scale unknown
whose whitest whisper is an opaque cry
of measureless frequency, the spectral sigh
you breath, bright hydrogen and brighter zone
of fissured carbon, consummated moan
and ceaseless rapture of a brilliant why.
Will nothing wake you from your livid rest?
Essence of ether and astral stone
the stunned polarities your substance weaves
in one bright making, like a dream of leaves
in the tree’s mind, summered. Or as a brooding bone
roots constellations in the body’s nest.
Copyright Credit: Karen Volkman, "[Sleeping sister of a farther sky]" from Nomina. Copyright © 2008 by Karen Volkman. Reprinted by permission of BOA Editions, Ltd. www.boaeditions.org
Source: Nomina (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2008)