David Humphreys

Kayak 

The ice floe of the moment 
carries with it hunter as well as hunted.
In the igloo of the heart 
survival is all that matters.
You have heard the story
of the bone blade in the bait of fat
spilling bear blood on the white tabletop.
You carry the story in your own warm stomach,
its moral wrapping you in seal skin,
laced tight and final.
Outside is frozen and congealed,
sizzling wind chill.
Inside, the world is kept in a hard kiss
and mad embrace
rolling up from a capsize to seize
the vanishing moment, one eye always open 
watching for the wooden horse mirage, 
northern lit snow mobile, 
no simple cold-fusion harpoon panacea
found in a lottery jackpot down at the new casino.

David Humphreys

Dark Energy / Dark Matter

“All that’s best of dark and light 
meet in her aspect and her eyes.” 
“She Walks In Beauty,” Byron

Mysterious force acceleration, expanding universe,
cosmological constant, quintessence, dark energy,
galaxy rotation reflecting a spherical distribution,
not what is seen exactly; perhaps exotic particles or many stars
too small to have ignited measurable in the cosmic micro-wave 
background and distant supernovae, Dark Matter,
dreamscape, nebulous haunting staircase,
widow’s walk watch across the teaming sky,
veil of lace, lamp oil & candle light in a sea of black
before sunrise waking the sleepy world, bright emerald
against white & blue, all the reasons why anything is ever done, 
for catalytic love, rolling boil, fire trigger of birthing seas, 
ocean of slippery salt, lighthouse gleaming above dark waves,
lovely seductive universe.