This is a sestina using defamiliarization to capture a quintessential backyard camp-out. |
Summer Vigil The evening is intangible. Feline bruises, red and lost; Cascading scorn, an elfmaid dance. Confessions woven in a balmy hush (Bumbling thoughts of busy stars)-- Moonshine lightens heavy pores. Senseless longing sinks our pores Sullied flesh: rotting, intangible. If no delight can come from stars, Our half-wit wishes, mite, are lost For nothing sleeps near twilight’s hush, Besmirch our verdant (savage) dance. The blades of grass begin to dance Mingling with unwary pores, (Burdened by the deciduous hush) Cloistered, yet intangible. And soon the night will be lost In steadfast grief and dandelion stars. And so incomplete are these stars (Dissonant tunes for a poison-dance) Blue voiced jinns take what is lost From dangling, ruddy, tainted pores. A cry so deep and intangible That nothing is heard above a hush. The lullaby’s end is nearing, hush As tar-and-eyelids impede the stars; A wakeful doze, evermore intangible (Smothering the sacrilegious dance). Blunted embers melting our pores, Haphazardly bury the living lost. Petrified thoughts, soon to be lost, Whence raises that suffocating hush. Acrid dignity spills from old pores And crystallizes bloodied Injun stars, Fending wisps of a sorrow dance Surrenders the intangible. (A martyred Gorgon’s head Ravenous; severed honesty, hysteria Muddying thy Christian name) Sullying our lives. |