On his throne the great lord reclines, one eye open
in misty air, wandering byways of his thought-trance,
listening to ravens who travel the earth. One has flown

across endless steppes and whispers hunting songs
of sledges and wolves; the other murmurs of a cold
northern sea where birds cry above long ships scudding

through surf. What dirges do they know of clouds and moon
and great beasts swimming beneath shadowy waves, or
the serpent who moves in darkness, starved in the roiling sea?

[Steve Klepetar’s work has received several nominations for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Flutter Press has recently published two chapbooks: My Father Teaches Me a Magic Word and My Father Had Another Eye.]