Salt Song Salt Song

—Zunis make shrines on the way to a lake where I emerge  and Miwoks gather me out of pools along the Pacific  the cheetah thirsts for me  and when you sprinkle me on rib eye you have no idea how I balance silence with thunder in crystal  you dream of butterfly hunting in Madagascar  spelunking through caves echoing with dripping stalactites  and you don’t see how I yearn to shimmer an orange aurora against flame  look at me in your hand  in Egypt I scrubbed the bodies of kings and queens  in Pakistan I zigzag upward through twenty-six miles of tunnels before drawing my first breath in sunlight  if you heat a kiln to 2380 degrees and scatter me inside  I vaporize and bond with clay  in this unseen moment a potter prays because my pattern is out of his hands  and when I touch your lips  you salivate  and when I dissolve on your tongue  your hair rises  ozone unlocks  a single stroke of lightning sizzles to earth—

Dec 23, 2014 / Books & the Arts / Arthur Sze