A Tribute to the Cast of JCS

Claire Cooney
 

your greatness,
it descends from a bed of bruised skyline
where, pinned unfluttering to the crossbeams of the ceiling, you sing
your beauty travels in wings, in sound waves, in light-years
to reach me here
I pass below you and my spine begins to tingle
the thought of you, dying as a flower at its fall,
brings no grief, but relief akin to ecstasy
a withering into peace
I lift my soul to you, lift it with my half-trained voice
propelled by awkward, dancing limbs
I seek to stoke you, provoke you, stroke you
into leaping like a bonfire and burning down to me
(you dazzle me)
my gladness undims what has diminished within
you thrive in me – in my memory
detached from touch, we sicken, pale, empoisoned – cringe
from shadow-plays upon our skin
as polar opposites we move, upon one axis, on a wheel of smoke
and light
illumined by worship in love-making with music
those gifts of grace from void
like a spear with two heads, we pierce into each other
through storm fronts of armor, enshrouding center sanctum
to places distant and electric
like a city on the horizon of deepest night,
clasping only in passing -
reluctant to release this withering into peace,
we follow our paths, lit by starlight and each other
we are the ever-victors –
plummeting into sudden mysteries
plundering the depths to emerge
wet with sweat, gasping, grasps slipping, falling upward and enthralled
my world wobbles like a top without you
loses meaning, momentum, true-north, without you
my only infinite lover, manifested in multitudes
you dazzle me

2-6-02
for the cast of JC Superstar, Harper College