a bulk of averages,
units of past and present,
sliding on a continuum
of coarse rope,
cards, hard-edged, steely,
shuffled in and out
in towering constructions
of boredom and ecstasy,

a mountain, one prodigious
spire, blue, crystalline,
ice, melted by searing
plasmic flames from
the pit of the stomach,
only to refreeze in a
dingy corner of the
mental universe,

but an average nonetheless,
the essence soars too high,
into icy, swirling, numb
clouds of gray,
or plummets too far,
into molten pulses
of frantic earth,
and the fabric is rent,
cast into a womb of nothing
nothing, atoms sucked
in every direction
into walls and skies
of steel and blue,

it is glimpsed from without,
at odd moments,
a green and purple garden,
silver glimmers fan
from damp broad leaves,
the feel of cracked white
paint on wood,
a yellow bird alights,
staring into the vacuum,
one turns, and it is
glimpsed, is felt,
the vacuum, of everything,
of nothing,

but from within, it is seen
forever, without
eyes
an offhand disintegration,
the slow accumulating thunder
of avalanche, a sudden crash,
and background becomes foreground,
attention is grasped with firm
soft claws, unconsciousness becomes
awareness, events occur on the field
of objectivity, with the tangible
lucidity of dreams,

sky phases from grey to black, grey
to black, banks of wispy furtive clouds
rush by, backing away in hushed murmurs,
revealing glimpses of a stark beacon moon,

the tides recede nervously, moonlight
speckling the faceted waters in tones
of silver and sepia, illuminating
the laughter of dolphins,

to turn, quickly, and perceive
the momentary explosion of the landscape,
a mountainside disintegrates, unbound
from reality, each atom free, suspended
in space for a moment, then to collapse
in another expression of random existence,

but it fades, fades away, into a dense
golden haze of lightly swaying particles,
borne on breaths of warm summer air,
engrossing in its diffusion, leading the mind
into soft expanses of unknown sands,

only to settle away, to subside, to leave
the hard kernel of absolute clarity,
a perfect stillness containing all action,
a perfect silence containing all sound,

from horizon to horizon, a silver mirror
plane, momentarily reflecting the images
of deep sky blue and white vapor clouds,
then infinite reflections of nothing,
till objectivity loses focus, the means
of sight decay, all that remains is the one
eternal stare, the mental stare whose tendrils
merge on misty horizons into the viscous flow
of existence,

all of this in a moment