Otolith

One of numerous stones sifts through the mind’s seaweed
wavering in the water when a body moves through vertigo
and the current brings the tide in as sleep returns.

Years go by. The intern from Seattle sent north
from Minneapolis to this paradise of fish and deer
says the names of the stones strained through seaweed,
weightless before the middle ear freezes,
the shifting of stones become a slowness now,
heavier. The brain chatters, When will thaw come?

Through the body’s channels leading from head to legs,
one in sudden pursuit of the other
turning too quickly, the body tumbles.

Many years since the first such fall, the verbs
outnumber nouns, vowels the consonants,
and fear of the tic, the bloc on a d or t,
the poles of the inner ear melting that bordered
terrain with its white bear, its frozen deer, fish thawing, 
creatures seeking higher ground, waters rising.

After falling he regains the feet their ankles do not aid..
Vestigial memory knows how he learned to fall young
on the field, primordial body wedding flesh with bone.

(11 April 2014)

copyright 2014 by Floyce Alexander