a blinking star
the germ of it all
to hatch lines parallel
& crossed
a scratching within
l’oeuf cosmique
St. Johns’s shadow
in a lithograph by Durer
a grammar of escape
& detachment
a hymn
sung above the winepress
it’s what it means
to batten down
retreat to a bubble of air
within water
& then to claw
against containment
to peck this hole
& walk through it
to fly toward sleep
as if to trace
this constellation
under glass
David Highsmith lives and works in San Francisco, and hopes to retire to Casper, Wyoming. He currently organizes poetry readings and other community events at his store in San Francisco, Books & Bookshelves, for which he has received The San Francisco Bay Guardian’s coveted “chain alternative” award, 7 x 7 Magazine’s Best of the Best award, a personalized martini shaker from the S.F.Weekly, and the Bookstore Poet of the Year Award from the glade of theoric ornithic hermietica blog. His latest book is your wilderness & mine from BlazeVox.