Ember Days

We made our own stars tonight
          and sent them beyond the tops
          of trees, interposing, in the sky's ancient
          melodies, our own garish counterpoint
          until those bold and distant suns
          became as grace notes in a symphony of small fires.

Then, content with our shifting constellations,
          we created a new cosmology
          in mud and ash
          and made our heroes dance
          with demons, writhing like oracles
          through the smoke rings and columns.

Tomorrow, the flaming chariots will crash
          quietly into the fields and valleys,
          and when the moon goes dark
          we will look again to the old stories
          carved stark and shining into the roof of the world.

But this time,
          our young gods will walk with us
          into the shadows of the tried and true
          and out into the clear light of day.