The Dragon at the Bottom of the Sea
Fourth Message
wants to be real as the fear of whatever he doesn't
really know about, like airplanes fill the sky, sleeps
beside a failed attempt at Beauty, dreams people would
say it differently, say it not because they are afraid
of being human, the human means of transcendence,
transcendent because one night he took off his wings, swerved
and sunk.
                 Bamboo cannot be separated from landscape.
But the fly, one speck of paint out of many might vanish
like so much unnoticed color in the sea.
See how it turns back.
He wanted it said like that.
1997.  Iowa City, IA