San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

Charles Harmon

GO DEEPER

Ambivalent about your animal nature?
Whether to explore that hidden part of yourself
That growls and crawls and swims and flies?
Curious enough to search for that hidden spiraling
Tango that clarifies the vagaries of our ascent?
Go deeper.

Follow the spoor that mystifies most hunters,
Searching for dragons and becoming our prey,
Firing at the phoenix, most dangerous game,
That vanishes into rarified air grasping
The last of your bread crumbs gleaming
In its beak, disappearing into the fading light
Of the sinking and resurgent sliver of moon.
Go deeper.

Jump into the labyrinth, even when the
Thread is broken, shadow boxing with the bloody
Bull, where limestone once was coral sea and
Will become marble palace, many chambered
As the heart, winding down through eons
Twisting through mountains, melting
Caverns out of acid from the sky.
Go deeper.

Into the dark pool, it reaches to the core.
Drop your line, it’s baited with your dreams.
The hook is phosphorescent, it gives wings to meat
And makes even the bottom dwelling stones dance.
Go deeper.