Thursday, January 21, 2016

Orion in Winter (Charles Burchfield), Sonnet #281




















Tonight the stars sleep with their eyes open --
The only way they can see each other.
Orion hunts with eternal hoping
As he was taught by his Gorgon mother.
The stag was belly-shot miles back and stares,
The constellation swirling in his eyes.
No one stepped out beneath the winter skies
To follow his blood beneath its bright flares
To end his agony with guns. He dies,
Ascends to run with lions, wolves, and bears.
Furious Orion ropes nearby stars
And lashes up his celestial car.
He'll drive it hard to the home of his birth
And hunt to death every man on earth.

Note: In Greek mythologyOrion was a gigantic, supernaturally
strong hunter, born to Euryale, a Gorgonand Poseidon (Neptune).
It is said he once boasted that he would kill every animal in the
world.