Fire & Water Moon

Fire & Water Moon

New Moon   August 16, 2023  

 

Bless confusion’s tempest

its arid calm & furious defense

the gray ash of loss

the fire bereft of unkindness

 

Kiss the cheek of a burned mountain

Caress wind & power blown down

Shelter the lost flooding to sea

 

Make a home in dereliction of duty

Figure that nothing makes sense

Take a break from responsibility

 

Forget identity & vow

Blaspheme parsley & tarragon

for their vulnerable habit of generosity

 

Resound cobbles with greedy complaint

embrace abject transference:

blame atoms, curse kernels

assault capital, greed & war

 

Give up on noble projects & wallow

like a splotched pig in a forest—

all nearsighted hunger & shadow

 

Keep no record of this

Make no artistic moves

Relinquish your vanishing point

such that the sky slants inward

to pierce the beating within

 

Allow fat gravy to stain your body—

afterward, remorse sliding free

of resolve’s adamantine core

 

Protect nothing

Befriend no one

Allow the bottom to rise toward center

 

Finally, after touring hell,

invoke the name of just one being

whom you cannot hate.

 

Let them be an oceanic presence

where all is washed in the grace

of one blue drop.

 

Let the briefest cool breath

go forth free of anger

to bless the next.

Amen.

 

Poem by Qayyum Johnson

Painting by Suiko Betsy McCall. Invoke the Name of just one Being whom you Cannot Hate, 2023. Inks on Yupo, 16 x20″. Available (the original and as prints) at suiko.art.