Possession

I drink from the darkness
of the Big Dipper
lives unnoticed by sunlight
coyote pups
born in the dank of the earth
as the tail of a beaver
cracks like a shotgun blast
in the still water
at three a.m.
I am possessed
by the cacophony
that breaks winter
and announces
the triumphant return
of breath.

I have only
my own senses
in the blindness
of night
no bones
no skin
nothing to hold
my soul in check
except the liquid crystal
that breaks from the lungs
of creatures
smaller than my thumbnail.

I am caught
by the reverberations
of eternity
in this one moment
of possession
in the deepest
space between
two breaths.