“
Now reading
Of Shapes and Shadows
Fishfire flashing and scattering-
fins of glass-sunward along the bay in the glaze of
afternoon
flurries and falls to the sea:
whatever came to the calm of the feeding school silvering
that limpid light
has darkened and gone.
*
Now evening dims:
sky and islands. Hesperus follows the sun, down to the
shell of a house
that is building under the slump of rubble aslant from
bastion Montaña Encantada.
That flint I plucked up from dust of the headland this
afternoon comforts my hand.
* * *
Southward, low over the Sea of Cortés, low on the
afterglow glows Canopus,
yellow on yellow, first of the three of the starway up to
Orion, bright
Rigel brightening, alone awhile. While evening darkens.
I wait. Namer
of nameless stars.
The islands are black,
and the mountain. The hour of the bat. Bellatrix and ©
Betelgeuse and the belt of the kings.