as the suns’ first rays
begin to whisper over the horizon,
the swallows speak softly their good mornings
and the bats good night,
I step out into the crisp kingdom of sacredness.
the lake is still,
reflecting the dark red rocks
as I look out–
two mirrors quietly observing one another.
The world wakes up:
ripples begin to dance shyly,
geese skim the cool water’s surface,
and suddenly, like a fish leaping from water,
a fish leaps from the water.
The sun, emboldened in its proclaimation,
drapes my face in its warm glow
glistening off my golden armor and helmet
and sending rainbows ricocheting
from my diamond throne.
The water is waking up,
and the ripples confuse the images
(if never the mirror itself)
and as the first drone of the diesel boat
dipping its dirty little beak in the water
cuts the silence
with all the surgical precision of a dull rusty nail,
I see
that this sacred kingdom, this
enlightened society
that exists between me and you,
the objects of my perceptions, affections,
this has never disappeared,
it is only I who have forgotten
how to look.
