*Elysium*

"In dusky hours the song of America comes rising
the plunk of heart strings and bow strings alike
calling out out away in finite
like the road
tar river
running running running on
under indigo pavilion skies
oh inky firmament
fling wide your elegiac door
to the old gods
creeping at last over the threshold
frayed and worn thin
ragged gods
scrap gods
remnant gods
grifter gods
shift-eyed
with itchy spider fingers
scrabbling in unwatched, crumb-blessed pockets
filthy urchin gods begging for alms and hosannas
on the streets of New York
forgotten in the creases of the city’s leathery skin
whore gods clinging to last vestiges
of worship on the altars of flesh
of taut thigh and soft belly
gods that hid in chartreuse alleys
sampling jambalaya and jasmine
in New Orleans
before they were drowned out
Scrubbed gone
and washed away
leaving
the gods are leaving
exit thus in exodus
this archetypal brilliance
leaving autumn snapping its chill fingers
shuffling in samsara soft shoe
and me
sky-haired dusty-eyed and barefoot
the spanse of America calling out
stretched taut and smiling
like the hips of brown, sandkissed boys."

*Whistler 2006 World Ski/Snowboard Festival Masterpiece in Motion Snowboard Art Contest Finalist, Professional Division.