by Susan Hawthorne
At the end of every cosmic cycle,
at the end of a generation – yuganta-
meghaha¬ – clouds congregate
gathering souls for the next yuga
cloud breath, soul mist
rasping winds, rattling bones
here come the galloping horses
humans astride their flanks
here come the thundering clouds,
breaking the world apart
the Hercules moth climbs every building
rising upwards through 110 floors
scaling the earth to find the moon
that light in the sky through which
he might escape earth’s pull
and melt into the inferno of light.
yugantameghaha is a Sanskrit word meaning a gathering of clouds at the end of an epoch; a yuga is an epoch and some say we are currently living in the Kali yuga, an epoch of destruction.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
Susan hawthorne is the author of six collections of poems. The Language in My Tongue (1993), Bird (1999), The Butterfly Effect (2005), Unsettling the Land (2008), Earth's Breath (2009) and Cow (2011). A chapbook, Valence, will be published in late 2011. She has been included in Best Australian Poems anthologies and Earth's Breath was shortlisted for the 2010 Judith Wright Poetry Award.
Last updated June 19, 2011