bulge

the sunset makes dragon spines
bulge over us at duskwater

where light is cast on steady ripple backs 
where light stretched out catlike 

into brooding November pools
whose cold murmurs heave forward

and sigh against the stone pier
and the slow belly curve 

of the annex tips the balance 
left where tall lamps stand 

in row, the shadowed birds 
in groups turn my mind

to thoughts of autumn, 
the winter at my back 

in granite 
in its cold touch through flannel.


josh buermann © 1999