Candlelight and Llama Blankets, A poem

6 February

candlelight and llama blankets
bring memories of the day
the inland sea
vast and blue
stretching for ever
burning rubber of laboring engine
alone in the world
the breeze kisses and bites my neck
like an excited lover
clouds slung low
scraping the water and my skull
the idea of eternity
clearly presents itself
for consideration
and my brain accepts
balancing the eternal
with NOTHING
(libra’s attempt at eternity)
the scale tips sharply
in favor of the neverending
and I open myself wide

the candlelight also illuminates
memories of other times and places
all so far from this bone of mother earth
this mountain birthed in amniotic fluid
of Lago Titikaka
all places and times
converge in a swirl of creation
memories molded to stone
stone molded in memory

I suck into myself at 4110 meters
snap into body myself
clean and cold and wet
a shadow of life eternal
and then
breath caught in my throat
I see the mother before me
she is facing father across a short distance
which is really where they connect
to become two plants
from the same root
lovers and twins
split in half at some important moment
only the rocks can remember
and they do remember
only they are silent
unwilling to give up the secrets
which make them so hard
unwilling to yield
to any but their creator
and the lovers face each other
across the distance
intense in their devotion
desire has cooled to attentiveness
and memories are the blood

I remember then where I am
in the candlelight
in a llama blanket
sounds of native music
in the distance
native music with gringo dancers
haunting and low, beautiful
the sound the rocks would make
if they whispered their secrets
the sound of beauty and knowledge
deep and innocent and sorrowful
in the memories of this night