Among These Heavens: A Sestina
By Puya G
It is among this dark
this black yet luminous wind
and asterisms and stars and planets, Earth
there is. As the stars breathe pale
light; and this sun sheds this eternal fire;
this planet and its offspring stand as one, like a giant.
The sky, a giant.
Brewing brilliant radiance, which is needed for our planet, both black and dark.
Creator of the thunderbolts, that warrior which will beckon fire.
Of that which blows away the seeds in that farmer’s basket, the wind.
Of clouds, pale.
Clouds which hover idle like those tears which lay in the heartbroken lover’s eyes, those clouds which guard over Earth.
Descending from the airy heavens, Earth.
Swim in the waters of the Ocean, that giant.
Under the cerulean surface, the shafts of the sun reach to the sand, colored pale.
Into the chasms, the curious abysses, fearful, dark,
there is no presence of a breeze, an evil feeling, no wind.
Yet through these last frontiers, there can only be felt upon the skin, water, not fire.
Above this kingdom, we reach the forests, where dwells the fire.
Where the leaves and the foliage are only seen, covering the earth.
Blanketing the soil, rustling as the air spins through the fissures with the next wind.
Although gorgeous themselves, the trees stand as tyrants barring the people from foreign beauty, giant.
Light cascades through the treetops, winding through the woods, smiting dark.
Here it is silent at moments, yet others, full of joy and song, the birds and their madrigals, their wonderful orchestras breathing and crafting a chorus casting a deep yet delightful enchantment over the groves which lay pale.
And then we reach some craggy peaks, pale.
In the mountain caves, there is fire.
In the mountain clefts, there is dark.
Like divine souls they watch over Earth.
Like giants.
Where, although ravaged by its powers, these mountains are tough and strong when battered by the wind.
The flat plains; where whistles and hums a jolly tune does the wind.
Painted with crimson and jade, shades of moon-pale.
Covering great amounts of land, tackling a distance that is giant.
No Fire may harm this tranquil setting, this earth.
A place only of luminosity where reigns no terror, no dark.
One instance dark, one light, one stormy, one windy, one peaceful!
These shades of white and black, pale and gray, good and evil; these mountains, isles, waves, forests, this earth!
These giants, these dwarves, this water, this fire, these opposites which battle, this heaven and planet, sun and moon, this universe which holds us all, this home, this earth!
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