Koss
Untitled (Earth)
mother earth, in her shifting plates and spinning
transits her own aloof epic
the slow weep of canyons’ wounds
magnetic axis drawing in quiet defiance
and divorces of continents and their denizens
oh to be woo or new age or schooled
in the healing grounding of earth’s bounties
its jaspers so malachite mustard and red
and then crystals’ ethereal qualities
beaming their light streams and starbursts
entombing their own minute cosmos
then fossils’ ancestral properties
their histories livered
in mineral webs
and for painters earth’s gift of pigments
the richness of certain oxides
warming ochers the dependable inert
neutrals (slate)
the inner radiance of venetian red
and don’t forget charcoal
graphite hematite and leaded pencils
what they skirr over plastered
pulp and finally coal and oil
and how they kill
men back . . . and what of the dirt eaters . . .
their tongues’ divinations long lost
Koss is a writer and artist with over 150 publications in journals such as Bending Genres, MER, Five Points, Hobart, Spillway, and others. They had work included in the 2020 Best Small Fictions anthology and were nominated for two 2021 BOTN awards for poetry and fiction. Koss also won the Wergle Flomp 2021 Humor Contest for poetry. Find links to their work at https:koss-works.com.