The Strength of Law

The rain begins. Clear skies become wall to wall clouds with a ceiling of the same. All grey. Its accumulation entirely escaped my notice.  
 
I could hear the busy patter of a sudden deluge on the roof, wind gusting with bestial force. It retreats to shadows where its voice stalks low in its throats.  
 
It calls to me with a lovers magnetics. I drape a towel over the back door knob and go into the storm.  
 
It picks up intensity. I laugh as I also decide that this final summer rain was just for me. A moment later I smile as I amend that thought to, well, it is also for me. ;)  
 
Thor bellows. Defiant son to a wise father. Odin scowls, for an answer. I speak to both with laughter and poetry. For a few moments, I unfold. Burn nakedly.  
 
Thoughts and feelings arise. The mind wanders. The heart holds. Focus shifts. Awareness follows. Brings what is submerged to the surface. Makes it real.  
 
..  
 
The law of demigods:  
 
Who is the biggest prick you know. Is it he who cries and laments his fate or he who cries I am Ozymandias, King of Kings. Is it someone who needs to be the authority on everything or keeps an exacting ledger of their pains. Is it you. Is it me.  
 
We walk together, then apart as we are drawn into our separate polarities. My hemisphere is north, north east and yours is southerly.  
 
I know a hawk from a handsaw by the direction from which I catch the scent of salt. I know Antares from Andromeda by the angle from which its shadow falls. Its nature writes volumes, which I read.  
 
A gulf grows in the space between. I approach her. Cold intergalactic absence permeates the air I breathe.  
 
We are giants clutching blades of grass like sabers. Fingers bled upon these rough edged quills, so unlike our lungs of brass, which blast when struck in the hollow of the throat.  
 
I listen where your belly makes the ground hiss and hear you in the dauntless march of siege engines that break the bedrock on miller's wheels. Grinding bones to meal.  
 
Habits have their own laws of motion. Reinforced association, established neural paths.  
 
I was going to ask, do you let everyone down with a probability that skirts or confirms systematic, purposeful immolation.  
 
Are those who've departed your nemeses or your victims. Some of each, shadows burned into memory. Are you ashamed. Are you sorry.  
 
Then thought better of it.  
 
You could not have known, nor could your motivations have been nobler than this, simple act of collision.  
 
..  
 
The law of hungry ghosts:  
 
Look where the hammer falls to ground  
And find me there  
Smoldering  
Upon struck earth  
Which shudders as I descend  
To bruise the palms of Atlas  
 
Wade back through the river  
Of blood I am  
From this thin tributary  
To that great ocean of  
Inheritance  
It calls me  
We collide, there  
Where colossi  
Meet  
 
Hear the waters  
Unquenchable  
Thirst  
Hiss  
Forth in their  
Slithering  
Descent  
Each breath  
Foments  
With unshed amplitude  
 
Avarice seethes within the base of the trunk  
Crowded with disparate frequencies  
Masses crowded with vouchers  
For flesh  
And force of stomach  
Drives the desperate river  
Before it  
Into flood plains  
 
Witness the wickedness  
Of unabashed  
Intellect  
Heart  
Awareness  
Lust  
As my nostrils pour  
Twin phantoms of  
Rising  
Steam  
And trans orbital circumlocution  
 
Look, father  
See how ugly beautiful I become  
 
Repeat routine treads  
In familiar corridors  
Fingertips trouble electrics  
In rooms formerly kept  
Unpleasant air  
Lingers there  
Turning doorknobs  
Inspiring shivers  
 
..  
 
The law of gods:  
 
Went walking in the cold rain. Wind from the west rose against me, weighting my steps. Not a star for the cloud cover. On the road, not another soul to swear by.  
 
I dream of her. Want to hold her, but she is distant. Unapproachable. Eyes so like ancient Ozymandias might have borne, coolly deciding fates. Deciding everything.  
 
We stay in touch, she dispenses coins from her wealth of knowings, fingers gripped delicately by twos. She is subtle in texts, we feel each other out as I clack away at the phone in the dark of early morning.  
 
If she is shining a mirror angled to reflect her own greatness, I will love her the more for it. I learn to see her strength. She could silently bear many things.  
 
She cannot divulge to me. Places she can’t return to or I am too stupid to understand. I learn. Don’t ask. I enjoy it.  
 
Sometimes when she burns so bright that shafts of foxfire form a crown about her brow, she insists to hold the blueprints to true north. Her comportment assuring that beyond her lies a vacuum.  
 
She has her own interpretation of everything. It’s best to roll with this. She names the constellations, like old friends. She is with me and then with them. Gone. I wake, but am still in the room where she is gone.  
 
I am crushed between, where dream and reality converge. See it take shape before my waking eye, the other still dreaming. I ache with realization. Two halves of a mind transitioning meet in a mirror darkly.  
 
..  
 
The law of animals:  
 
Though rain has stilled to a slow tempo  
Somewhere in the atmosphere  
Thunder lurks  
Unseen  
Growling with ominous  
Unspent anima  
I miss her heart  
 
No lightning as yet  
The thunder remains  
Overhead  
Slithers on its belly  
Somewhere beyond the din of your  
Speaking  
Noisome words  
 
My ignorance shouts from the mouth  
Of the navel ;)  
Better if I say nothing, just listen  
 
See the subtle zephyr  
Slide from shoulder to shoulder  
Of deciduous vine  
And hiss under cloak  
Of leaf  
 
Watch the serpent shed its scales  
Follow the husk trail of its  
Sibilant  
Skins  
And see that it is  
Patient of  
Years  
 
Unfurls wings  
That constrain winds  
Rises on taloned limbs that are  
Thickly muscled and fat  
Swaddled  
From many fine  
Meals  
 
Grins  
Fangs  
Which burn with obscene  
Menace  
Eyes that hold the light  
Hostage  
Shed a naked  
Desire  
To consume  
 
Resting easily  
Exuding calm  
The dragon has allowed them  
To allow themselves in  
 
Follow the path of blood  
Inheritance  
To this Atlas  
Look for the fiery spark  
Of his passage  
 
See the after image radiate in night  
That is otherwise  
Bereft  
Of light  
Between deafening  
Concussions  
Wander in where I will  
Not speak  
But listen  
 
I imagine the breath of Mjolnir  
That sighs in the wake of its  
Vector  
And I cruise there  
Upon its tail ;)  
Contentedly  
Saying  
Nothing  
Of consequence  
 
I am awful  
I find myself ugly and you beautiful  
You feel the same  
We understand each other  
 
..  
 
The law of hells:  
 
I feel the breath  
Of my laughter  
Draw diffuse elements  
Into dense nebulae  
 
Incensed  
Anger radiates in wavelengths  
In the far infrared  
Accretes  
Into a circumstellar disk  
At my center of gravity  
Where rancor  
Seethes  
Released  
Beneath the soles  
Of my feet  
 
Massive bursts are triggered  
By tidal forces  
In the departed constellations  
I cannot remember  
It all occurs beyond my reckoning  
 
I think I understand  
When I compare her to the formation  
Of young stars  
 
I tell her,  
My engine tears through me  
This inexhaustible font  
From which my faith  
Flowers  
Perpetually, if not perennially  
 
Watch me oscillate between manic states  
Come closer  
Embrace me  
Burn to cinders in my hands  
 
My love no fear has  
I, the fire elemental  
 
Watch my musical talons  
Command your attention  
Ladies and gentlemen  
As I paradigm shift  
With the strength of law  
 
You could not have known. Nor could your motivations have been nobler than this, simple act of creation.  
 
..  
 
The law of humans:  
 
I wait for light in lightless depths. Silent. A prisoner of self.  
 
A message emerges. I discover it, hold it over my heart, cupped in palm.  
 
We share a collective destiny. You and I hold it together. Evolving in all directions.  
 
There is much debate as to whether self-interest or cooperation should be held as more conducive to the nature of being. Both or something else entirely. All things notwithstanding. Doubt quavers at the heart.  
 
I have known each faith separately. The long arm. Strength of hands. All I know is my road to here.  
 
I embrace course correction and acceptance. Endurance. Not control. Capacity.  
 
Draw my cloak back across coals, which dim to a core smolder. Return what is submerged to the cold chamber where I slumber at the center.  
 
Thoughts and feelings disperse. The heart releases. Mind becomes clear. Focus shifts. Awareness follows. I ponder many things. Past and present.  
 
..  
 
The rain ends. Grey skies persist in all directions. I feel attuned to the accumulation. The atmosphere weights upon me. I know my neighbors consider me a lunatic. It is not unreasonable.  
 
I know a handshake grip from taking a piss. I know Phobos from Deimos by the angle from which their shadows fall upon those who flee before the grinding hiss of the miller's wheel.  
 
I unwind. I feel.  
 
I have seen shame ravage life. There are many fates others suffer, I avoid by divine providence or stupid perfect miracles. Our shared fate is unavoidable. I try to appreciate you whilst I contemplate the paradox.  
 
I spend over half an hour in the weather. Lightning begins to pulse somewhere in the clouds directly above as I come to a close.  
 
Wind stills, rises to a crescendo. There is a rainbow corona around the street lights. A blue white aura reaches through the overhead haze, steady of interval, pulsing like the beating heart of Thor.  
 
..  
 
The Strength of Law  
or  
All I know is my road to here  
 
By Daniel Christensen  
writing as  
the fire elemental  
 
Copyright © 2016 by Daniel Christensen. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
 
Photo art is “Odin” by Raidho from Russia