Templum: A Place Thought of as Holy

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I. The coming

Inside this precise granite
the immensity of the walk comes home

A line of shallow prairie depressions
spawning bunch grass and tiny femurs
amphora of sage
greasewood and alkali
azimuth set on western horizons and refuge

II. A question of boundaries

Tucked under the gingham, molasses, and salt
came the questions
brooding questions
couched in red stars and millennia
erythrocytes and red-green algae

Has this same metal in my veins
once girded handcart wheels
galvanized rubric on the walls of Egyptian tombs
carried His breath

Is this universe of living
at one in the Glacier Lily
and slime mold
mine

III. Ingathering

Here in this unknowing
move the believers
hoping for a fix on the heavens

A humming unison of revealed hope
skirting the parallel terrors of
living and dying
Courting assurances in veils
pleated linen
and oil of olive

Frightened wings all akimbo
fluttering against the smoked glass

IV. Giving to the world a place