Angelic Syzygy

by Diana Thoresen

The dark intestine of the sea
Swallowed a colony of moonlit bats
God laughed and threw a new

Canopic jar of graceful waves
For Set and Horus to quarrel over
God smiled again and the darkness

Stampeded over distant green hills
Horus cried and Set fainted
God grimaced and the luminous

Blackness enveloped every flower
Ancient cliffs and ghastly crabs remained
Transfixed by limpid moonshine

But the pale owl wrapped its feathers
Around the spirit of every paperbark tree
Victorious as ever, Pallas traced

The eldritch mnemonics of the Big Dipper
To Arcturus and the earth
Rejoined in an angelic syzygy