CUM FERIS FERUS

The camera pans a snow-filled landscape:

Rolling hills, large trees, a frozen river.

The flakes fall like crushed aspirin, bits

Of paper, gauze bandages, clean teeth,

Shoelaces, headlights, a huge t-shirt,

Semen, confetti, chalk, seashells, ash,

Soap, trillium, solitude, daydreaming.

An intensely exciting montage of cells

Multiplying, a glacier, undersea vistas

Leading to the Mount of Olives where

God holds a camcorder, plugged into

The television it is pointed at, saying

I withdraw from myself into myself

To provide a space and an occasion

For all creation to forget our names.