Flame mountains
in a sunset desert of clouds.
Beneath us
the slow rotation of the earth
continues.

Ribbon of light
lingering on the ephemeral horizon,
a shimmering city of diamonds.

A cirrus hook hauls us higher
above the silver ghosts
until we hang suspended in the wind.

Burner blasts into the mouth.
We overshoot.
Higher and higher
as if propelled by something else.

The sublunary sphere in moonlit rigor
diminishes behind us
like an old memory or an illusion.

Now the polestar
is our sole companion
through uncharted witch flights.
The eternal drifting
in the empty space of a dream.

Aurora Australis
Copyright © 2003, Christopher J. Picking