Transfigured

Where is the boy inside?

Is he scratching at the crust of a cocoon?

Every cell is replaced after fifty years

Seven times seven times over

Each bit of protoplasm is numbered

With lost causes under eyes

Drawn tight over leering shades

Strutting on Dog’s legs

In iridescent feathers

And showing the soul on the tongue.

Where is the new you to woo?

The tracks you left are glowing

So that they are easy to follow

Right in to salt water.

You give your words in crumbs

And the time is gambled

Until the ants line up

And haul it all away.

Where is the transfigured moment?

When hours stretch in to miles

And seconds become entrenched

In the stripes that lap

At the oil on the bottom of the car.

How about meat transfigured in to crystalline stars

That align their gravities

And make the spheres sing high and lonesome

It is just over the horizon

Hidden by the earth’s curves

Because she always keeps her bodice half buttoned.

There are fifty miles to trudge

Before the sun is caught

Looking at us with sideways glances.

Joshua Kight

10/1/12