Turtle With Swan Wings
© Surazeus
2026 02 21

Strange as it seems to the alphabet god,
I wade in bright lake of arrogant peace
to catch demonic energy of fear
and roast large fish in domed temple of truth,
then sing with crickets in the twilight hour
when Death catches the tyrant in the tower.

Silver rain splashing on window of time
reveals strange beauty of this world I love,
refracting faces of strangers who live
in doorless houses of my neighborhood,
so I stand on stone bridge of timeless faith
and listen to song of the star-eyed wraith.

When people gather in the city park
for the annual poetry festival,
I morph into the turtle with swan wings
to fly across the prairie of respect
and walk in valley of the singing skull
to hear sweet spell only rivers can sing.

Though my heart is broken by civil wars
that displace families from ancestral homes,
the way Minerva smiles at me and laughs
while we are strolling on the river shore
heals secret wounds with charm of simple joy
because despair flows away to the sea.

Rivers have flowed from mountains to the seas
four billion years of shining crystal eyes,
and water will keep cycling through our hearts
another billion years of spinning hope,
so I kneel reverently in glowing grass
and drink clear liquid in cupped hands of love.

I pray to totems of Bacchus and Thor
who laugh with joy at calm absurdity
as we dance cheerful with anxiety
to celebrate savage science of truth
in war against the psychopathic god
who blusters with obsessive angst at Death.

Imperial pride of superior grace
glares fiercely from cracked mirror of despair
that drives brave Vikings mad in frantic fear
when glass cathedrals crack from greedy prayers
which leaves their treasured creeds exposed to rain
washing pious fantasies to the sea.

Stuck on the carousel of history
that hurls my horse of courage into war,
I race with passion past my destiny
by swerving willfully from violent hate,
and choose to welcome refugees of fate
to build communal paradise of farms.

surazeus.blogspot.com/2026/02/…

Orpheus hangs out and eats hamburgers with Bacchus and Thor at the picnic table in the park after they read their poems at the poetry festival.

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