Rise Up & Purify the Sky Moon

Rise Up & Purify the Sky Moon

New Moon  July 5, 2024

The thin model of a spider’s soul collects green pollen & shimmers

            most sensually in the first hour of sunrise

Beveled glass portholes cast subtle arcing rainbows

they perambulate with painted shapes of change

& make surprise appearances on the page

There is much to admire about light

            its freedom to play slowly, to acquiesce & collaborate

Last night artillery shelling boomed in shorecloud phosphorous

proud simulacra of real assault elsewhere

violence the model men in particular have made, in which they are caught

            a feedback loop of isolation that destroys what nurtures

            & abandons itself to greed & speed

It is difficult to imagine how lonely we will be

            if the rising in the east evokes no chorus from the birds

Cooper’s Hawk, at war with no one, a satellite who can see faster & farther

            gives its shrill five-times call from on high

            past—present, future—future—future

past—present, future—future—future

Skies are blue with a rimline haze of spent particulates

science says to hold our breath & wait to breathe

until the sticky poisons have settled

            The new moon has already begun to polish the air:

rise up

that we may be together

that we may be safe

that we may be peaceful

& see our own soul’s shapeliness in the nimbus-cast of one another

Poem by Qayyum Johnson

Painting by Suiko McCall. Our own soul’s shapeliness in the nimbus-cast of one another, 2024. Ink on paper, 11×9″. Prints available at suiko.art.