Metamorphic 11 On Cave Paintings and Coinage
by Ray Coletta

gold glitters too upon cave wall

fanned feather-tail

gold under swift current
tumbles and gleams





bluebells out of rust

renewal, of veiled coalescence

breath brings aftershock of rain
barley pubic, clover’s scent
dampened spring trailing storm’s dress

rapture is a cyclone, of black veil
of ring-text: an archive

seed gestates in body-celestial

chord’s gradients
unravel and falls flame shimmer
seedling, this heirloom carries time’s


flame does not obliterate

shadow is a vortex, flickering
the limestone, curving, imparts dimension

—a mountain of smoke from afar,



there eyes deeply the immutable image,

a face in the glass warps

turquoise glints

dusk, dark olive’s foam consecrated



tensile wings the air cascading, air
out snow-shell a blue whir, air

and at the edge they will build up out of sediment

song-shape alight on the obverse

these ruins will flow gossamer

fading lines seeking “there-ness”
ἐκεῖ/


as wind furrows grain heads,


—waxwing irradiant
apropos of waterfall their choral dances
apparition fell glass around them





of heather-lakes, footed an arc
of gold flipped intangible


merge in sight
sight, thus beauty


a pooled orange sun



out of green aether
to the root, vertebrae
into dust colors cast


solid under wave-arch


sitting upon the edge we dream of eternity

over sweetness vast
but of futile gathering

having no archive for our voices.