Calcareous Fen

Water lilies quilt the fen 

and cast pillars of shade, tangled members

Steam off the creek bed sings

of all things teal and quiet 

‘Fens blossom in the heat of silent flames,’ 

It is winter in my bedroom now, not outside 

Twilight is a basket woven from cattail stalks 

Shears swing their hips, primp unclean edges of light

Snow seeks shelter with algid stamen 

as cold air sways water to slush 

and roots unstifled by soil congeal

What solace is left to veins 

too listless to surf saline currents?

As lungs buckle, the body ceases to wonder 

I have shaken my outline, fingers chipped,

each now crowned with chalk spearheads

All with the meadows’ prior abscondence,

ether was tethered to chamomile spells

I am delivered to lave this body

a body so at ease it no longer seeks oxygen