Bestiary for the End Times

Bay Lycian Salamander (Turkey)
 
The pearl of Heaven has lingered
in the dragon’s mouth
for millennia, tasting of the salt
 
of the White Nile, of the soil composed
of the shredded flesh of Osiris
of the sirrocco’s heavy hot breath
 
smelling of onions and honey cream
from all the way across
the middle ocean of the world.
 
The Lycian salamander is sharpening
her obsidian teeth to slice
the steel cables suspending the blasphemous
 
Bosphorus bridge; her heavy hot breath
has been the sky of the world
since before the world was invented
 
out of the red waters of ancient
birdless dawns, her birdful dreams
populated the atmosphere with song.
 
She has solved a problem which baffled
the ancient world:
how to have peace.
 
she is a salamander, her joy is perfect,
her flesh fire, the harmony of her lithe body
on her thick gelatinous legs is the formula
 
of the golden mean, the simple quiet flame
of mineral rich droplets building mountains underground.