Poetry

Benu Bird

Silence.
Water.
Being and nothingness.

Then Benu.
Benu birthed itself;
wings split the firmament.

Listening, it heard the still-dark.
It cried to hear no other cry.
Shattered and shard-rent.

Bright Benu broke the silence:
keen and crystal, Benu spoke ‘Be’,
and the world unfolded.

At the cry the hill and forest,
by the cry the river and desert,
of the cry the wide spaces.

Where Benu was was light.
Beaming dawnlight, firstlight.
Casting dark as skimming pebbles.

Each day the ascent;
clawing the sky to feel it trickle fingertorn,
bubbling treacle-soft.

Dim the hour
and falling waterward.
Perish now, tomorrow springs exulting.

Far off and shadow-close,
the echoes evanesce
and nascent silence blooms.

Alex Marsh