Light Speed

the season
spilling
spells the season
I remember
zigzagging upwards to darkness
like a skidding stair
stars and moths
light speed
minarets, peculiar in the rain
slate ideas
through the sky's beard

and apples went out of season
without a word
just a nodding branch
baskets shivering in the morning--

believe in me,
the apple the pail never knew
the remnant in your brain
of pale boyhood records
of the torches of dawn's party
sterling and peach for a lost son
and the grass' breath

and the warm loam looms,
morning moxie
an old orbit of love
told, but there was nothing to tell
and I, -- I look for your blue shift
your returner empire
thieves and kings and madmen
shipshape on those crowded seas