Dance of Death

The legless grow new limbs and dance.
The sightless, sudden are given vision.
Armless stretch, reach way out, grasp
At rings; to ride carousels of the grave.


Purple poplars turned to copper and gold,
High-waisted trees; in Fall, their trousers
Of yellow leaves, twinkling in the breeze,
Swayed-wide, are pulled down in Autumn.


Thrumming dim, white winds of Winter:
Branches thwacking in shuddering cold,
Timid twitching with each blasting gasp;
Din of naked rubbing, twig against twig.


Smeared sun; bare, weak, pans boughs.
So nearly night, glimmering somberness
Open up death's imperium: nothingness.
Swallow day into maws of forgetfulness.


Heat and light hold together.  Join now
With an annealing of fire.  Annihilate all
Of life's desires. Link elbows. Slow step.
High hop! Jump the ditches of mortality.