Winter Canticle

[Sitaram]

Lust and Love were steeped in play
Upon an unresponsive sleigh,
Stainglass ice and hallowed snow,
And laughed and cried for doing so,
And the stars were far away.


And God said, "Let there be light!"
And there was light.
And God saw the light,
That it was good.
And Earth and Heaven understood.


Centaurus rose amid the frost
To trample down the Southern Cross.
Lust and Love were at a loss.
But earth and heaven understood,
And He saw that it was good.


And when their legs began to tire,
They broke the sleigh and built a fire.
And by its prehistoric glow
They knelt and built a God of snow;
Built a prophet on an alter,
Echoing His icy psalter.


Centaurus galloped in the sky,
And earth and heaven watched
And wondered why.


A mass of clouds possessed the night
And hid Centaurus and the light.
The snowflakes chanted icy vows
And toucher her hair
And brushed his brows.
The Prophet preached of snow and ice,
His one commandment, "Sacrifice!"


And God was crowned with splendid splinters,
Sperm of unrequited winters,
Crucified among December's
Afterbirth of dying embers.


So Centaurus sank to morning's stables.
Some witnesses will read in other fables,
Of how they searched and searched
And only found
An unburnt harness
Lying on the ground.



- Sitaram

(circa 1966)