no thoughts, just saying

"a sweet serenity, a holy joy of a peculiar kind, untasted in my bosom until then." -- Jarena Lee

1.


The Hudson freezes, the chemicals loosen their skim.
On ice, the taut thoughts lessen.


The Hudson freezes up north.
In the summer on the side lines
Along the ice stems, thoughts go under
The Hudson thaws as you southerly wander
Southerly loosens the ice, tortures the wonder…


The Hudson freezes and thaws how fast you are tending
To circle the stars, observe the clear freighters hover in fog


Or lighten the sheer drift, land and water extending
nothing stems out
whether the river is tending the track or not


Upending the shallows, no circles or squares, a perfect rectangle,
a star-thought that shares itself with itself, thirsty-tired.


Nothing is safe when the tension is fired across the skeleton.


The lines that graph
The dice on the ice


How relaxed can you get?


You think of the sunshine as always inset in yourself
a sharp star separate and under the gun
over the starlet and parch of your mouth
that shouts out the river, shows self, shells water releasing


The distance between you and home keeps decreasing
Increasing
Decreasing
Every curve the rhythm
Every shot the safe time to skim the track, stay noting the mountains, sip drinks, settle solidly on the liquid, ice yourself, tenderly