when the sun arcs low at dawn

cherry red scales of coloratura scent drift lightly
white across gleaming uplifted patinas of sound

and rhythm cannot exit so quickly across deer
skin stretched taut against pale December skies

of cirrus and crystal ice that brush near heaven
with vertebrae scales frozen stiff sky high in azure

canvases chiaroscuro field and ground blanched
to spin a colorless globe with blue focus glowing

on iconic foothills whose spiny bones revel under
the leafless supplication of grey trees that reach

for a god that is half-moon hidden behind fictions
that arise from bored parchment dried to reaching

so far too far when the sun arcs low at dawn