Vertigo

Snow falls all night as I
lie beneath down only
the cat against my flank, her
weighted contentment, making me
necessary in the oriented world.

Vertigo again —  reeling
adrift —  meclizine in the
dark and waiting, still,
on the gradual repair
of the rotting rudder.

The aging body
comes round slowly if
at all as if up
and down right ascension
and declination were
not abstractions but

something you could count on like the

cat’s soft purr anchoring you through
the night making you real a little
longer that you might rise
at dawn to witness

the blanketed earth the
snow-colored sky
indistinguishable

and attest to the absent
horizon the dizzying
beauty of arbitrary angles as

upright you grasp
the shovel’s handle and begin
to clear space

where the wild birds winging
toward you straight and
sure as arrows
will feed.

 

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Tags: aging, astronomy, birds, body, cat, dizzy, nature, orientation, sickness, snow, spirituality, vertigo, winter