Death Is Our Shepherd
© Surazeus
2026 11 11

Though apple tree, older than the moon,
was struck by lightning and burned to thin cinders,
long shadow of its leaf-wild canopy
still shimmers on tear-wet grass of his lawn,
so Nothus climbs ladder of secret tales
to catch voices of angels in the wind.

While chasing Choris in apple tree grove,
Nothus stumbles blind into secret garden
where statue of Saturnus with long horns
almost appears alive in shifting rays
of sunlight stippling concept of our being
with urgent passion of the hungry heart.

Blue wing of sorrow tilts his ocean heart
when pregnant doe emerges from dark woods,
so Nothus sings light-hearted melody
about swift-foot Diana with star eyes
who appears disguised as Choris from the mist
and asks if he wants to learn how to fly.

When Piper airplane glides across gold cloud
with cow-deep hum of psychic chemistry,
Nothus plucks geranium from his heart
and gives it to sweet Choris with shy smile,
but they run when they hear the airplane crash
and burn with sorrow on sand by the sea.

When fallen angel with swan-silver wings
wakes from dark tide of sleep on gleaming sand,
he rises from his body with soft sigh
and beams into bright diamond on cliff wall
in which our galaxy of countless stars
swirls languidly across abyss of faith.

To focus attention of his glass heart
on unspoken needs of his pregnant bride,
Nothus recounts his ancestral lives
in fairy tales that make their children laugh
as they drink hot chocolate and eat cookies
around the pine tree with blinking lightbulbs.

Death is our shepherd, and we are all sheep,
too eager to slip through cracks in stone wall
that shelters our frail souls in paradise,
so we share Thanksgiving feast with friends
when orange leaves shroud graves of our cozy homes
with pages from chronicles of lost time.

Strolling together up apple tree hill,
to worship Cronus in old pine-log fane,
Nothus and Choris pause on open porch
to watch enormous swan with sun-gold wings
land in the pool where blind Narcissus weeps,
then share sweet kiss as fog veils our lost world.

surazeus.blogspot.com/2026/11/…

Orpheus plays lyre of Mercury and sings while Nothus and Choris conduct ancestral rites at Fane of Cronus and their children play chase in the apple grove.

#Poetry #Poem #Pastoral #Necropastoral #MetaModernism #Transrealism #NewSublimity #NewRomanticism #AmericanDream #Cinemism #Existentialism #Surrealism #NegativeCapability #NewGnosticism #MetaRealism #NewTranscendentalism #Astarism