the wretched sea convulses &
you thrust through
on flash-vaporized salt steam

burning on the thickness
of the bell-taut pacific
the pale purple even

you pierce with pyrolytic grace
& tremble your white dawn
higher still & higher &

ecstatic you escape the pull
of earth its roar outsoared
to the darkblue roll of heaven

air thins as each condensed second
that we have in which to fear & love
thickens like ice on your fairing

(we would count backwards if we had the breath)

as heavy as a past event
your warheads wait
sailors in a submarine

starsight the white dots
pixels on a night screen
you trace your divine telemetry

like a baseball thrown across the lawn
like waking from a dream in cold sweat
like the scream inside unliving things

teach me your impossible weight
sinking the world to one black point
teach me your sun’s heart

teach me the indifference of
a cold joy severed from the world
when we awoke