The Crucible  

Something is wrong

There was a time when past was present

It isn’t that way anymore

He doesn’t understand what is happening to him

Why this day is not today and yesterday is tomorrow

Something is wrong

Something is playing with his mind

Maybe it’s something he ate

But he can’t remember what he had for breakfast this morning

Maybe he skipped breakfast

And the dishes in the drain-board are from last night

He doesn’t know these people who just knocked on his door

He thinks he’s seen them before but isn’t sure

They hug and kiss him and ask how he’s doing

How well he looks

But the little babies they're holding look at him funny

And one of them starts crying when they ask him to hold it

It’s your fourth great-grandson they tell him

He doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about

And he’s afraid he might drop it and hurt it

It’s so heavy

He wishes they would all go away

He doesn’t want them here

They’re making too much noise

He wants them to leave him alone

Leave him alone

                 Star Ice

                    He listens to the undulating ice

                    Diamonded by a solemnity of stars

                    It cleaves last summer's mackerel sea

                    It creeps through kelp-stilled glittering shoal

                    It cracks with music scratched on glacial bars

                    But for this sound no sound is heard

                    No startled bird no diesel growl - A penetrating fright

                    Crawls through ear-holes into pale veins

                    Buried just under his scalp to flick those sensors birthed

                    Within this billion-year cauldron now so white

                    It is here dimension ceases to exist

                    It is here under this pitiless gaze of celestial eyes

                    Where terror grips an anchorless flesh

                    Where ululations sound remorselessly unheard except by him

                    To lavalize the mind's malaise

                    Carefully he picks his way across the glistening ledge

                    His shattered knees barely supportive of his form

                    Perceptiveness lost to this insensate state

                    Struck dumb - Incredulous - Why is he here?

                    What has coerced and driven him to this destructive storm

                    Of carrion thought? - Of bitter and humiliating rage?

                    Bound now to harsh and unforgiving blips of light

                    With no consideration of his wants and needs

                    He is uncounted - Baffled - Lost inside this stricken dome

                    Blinded by frozen firmament that sears bituminous night