Sky Gravid

Sky gravid with the child of ice,
Air dense with bits of snow
Before they form,
With particles before they mate,
Crystals that flow from silver
In the dimming light,
That eddy into atmosphere
Just before the storm, plasma
That takes silver shapes
And drifts and blows like photos
In a darkroom, coalescing in the pan
As chemicals make shadows,
And affinities and faces fan out
From liquid salts,
Fogged by light and fixed by fruit,
Bleached with sulfur in the waltz
Of beet and chutney, beer and soda,
Until the memories of sky,
The fixer of the clouds, corrected
And developed by the eye,
The solar winds we suspect
Are lurking in the mist,
Until the numina of wind,
The mounting hints of dim
And lustrous seeds are xeroxed
Into being by the chaos in the sky,
And faces made of vapor brim,
Ascend, and crystallize.

January 21st, 2020
Tippet Alley