The fox leaps into your eyes.
Otters rush from the darkness.
The snakes pour through your body.
Your dog howls and upstairs
Your wife both exults and weeps at once.

The wild god dances with your dog.
You dance with the sparrows.
A white stag pulls up a stool
And bellows hymns to enchantments.
A pelican leaps from chair to chair.

In the distance, warriors pour from their tombs.
Ancient gold grows like grass in the fields.
Everyone dreams the words to long-forgotten songs.
The hills echo and the grey stones ring
With laughter and madness and pain.

— excerpt from Tom Hirons’ “Sometimes a Wild God”

A lit lover and a buddy of mine here in Roanoke sent me a link today of a reading of this poem. It really is a wonderful piece.

You can read the full poem right here at the author’s website:

https://tomhirons.com/poetry/sometimes-a-wild-god

Image credit: George Sallie, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons