The Crystal Palace
By Harris Coverley
We had arrived at the campsite late
And the dark was pouring down on us
Like divine, luminous oil
Making us sleepy and confused
Smothering our bodies’ rhythms
We tried to build the tent
But it proved a pointless exercise
So we lowered our car seats
All the way down
And hid ourselves under coats
I did not steal any slumber that night
For I noticed the beauty above
Through the insect-spattered glass
Those stars spread out above
In the cream of the Goddess
Thousands infinite
Worlds within worlds
Worlds beyond worlds
Realms untouchable in this life
Or maybe even the next
Stars winking at me
With Betelgeuse waving a red wave
And the Big Dipper dawdling
And the Bear roaring silently
And the Sisters nattering quietly
And Orion’s Belt was slackened
As the galaxy bloated slightly
All ecstasies of sight
I was smothered in the
Universe’s rhythms
A crystal palace of my infinite fantasies
No, I did not sleep at all that night
But I still awoke from a trance that morning
And was as fresh as the flowers
That grew by the campsite’s lake
And that had winked at me
When we had arrived
*
Harris Coverley has verse published or forthcoming in Polu Texni, California Quarterly, Star*Line, Spectral Realms, Scifaikuest, Corvus Review, Better Than Starbucks, Tales from the Moonlit Path, The Five-Two: Crime Poetry Weekly, View From Atlantis, Danse Macabre, and many others. A former Rhysling nominee and member of the Weird Poets Society, he lives in Manchester, England.