Mt. Cheaha: Pulpit Rock looking north. Photograph from Wikipedia.
SLEEPING GIANT
by
Deborah J. Brannon
Sleeping giant,
fold me within your great embrace:
let my bones become your bones;
my eyes become the hawk's who
circles on the wind
created by your gentle ascent;
my skin become the moss,
lichen, foliage of twisted pines
growing in bonsai-like triumph.
Let me lay bare
beneath the inquisitive nighttime sky
as Orion kisses my brow
this late March evening.
You are my peace,
here within my limited world.
I carry your sun-drenched rocks
within my bones,
the cloud-painted world below
in the back of my eyes
with blue blazing before it.
My bastion of solitude,
in an otherwise restless world
--how my soul longs for thee
though I've only touched you once.
Written March 28th, 2000 upon the occasion of visiting Mt. Cheaha in Alabama.