November Drum

After the swell of autumn color

Sparseness invades.

November's tympanic sky stretches

taut and translucent across an invisible frame.

.

The mountain range emerges a stark

Spinal cord from the distance

Vertebra to vertebra.

Trunks of trees and their outstretched

limbs - exposed nerves in the open air.

.

A bleach white sun bleeds

across the horizon, spread-lustre

upon the bare navel of the earth.

.

Through my body,

you can see the light.

.

The lakes hold their mouths agape.

Meadows lie catatonic, sinking

closer to bedrock. Sheets of ice

creak ten thousand miles away-

here, the sky resounds a

deep and unctuous tone.

.

Si sueltas un grito

resonará para siempre.

.

Static stillness crackles.

Nothing is severed in the blank

clarity of winter.

Nodes and dendrites, and spaces

between vital.

.

Sand at the edge of a steep crag -

feel the swelling urge to leap

clear to the other side.

How far can the self disperse?

Spaces between starlings

connected in spontaneous flight.

Space between object and

reflection in clouded lake.

To touch without touching.

.

Si te miro, tu me mirarás.

.

Attractive force of emptiness

lightning bolts and aurora borealis

the first branches of snowflakes drawn

From thin atmosphere.

To touch without touching -

fingertips and toes, hairs

standing on end.

.

Far away, the ice carves

A jugular vein in the land

The ocean fills with whalesong

requiem.

.

Heartbeat of the earth

slows as it crescendos,

beating the November drum.

.

Una vez, y una vez más