In the footsteps of the walking air <br />Sky's prophetic chickens weave their cloth of awe <br />And hillsides lift green wings in somber journeying. <br /> <br />Night in his soft haste bumps on the shoulders of the abyss <br />And a single drop of dark blood covers the earth. <br /> <br />Now is the China of the spirit at walking <br />In my reaches. <br />A sable organ sounds in my gathered will <br />And love's inscrutable skeleton sings. <br /> <br />My seeing moves under a vegetable shroud <br />And dead forests stand where once Mary stood. <br /> <br />Sullen stone dogs wait in the groves of water ... <br />Though the wanderer drown, his welfare is as a fire <br />That burns at the bottom of the sea, warming <br />Unknown roads for sleep to walk upon.<br /><br />Kenneth Patchen<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-footsteps-of-the-walking-air/
