Nightshade & Imaginary Sublime

before dawn, beyond a clear pane
the stuff of whiteday resolves
from nightshade after a heavy snow
leisurely reforming memories in a skullcave
energy-sparked, reigniting
every name we give to what shimmers,
sees, dances, feels, loves, speaks,
hates, seeks, dreams, keeps, or lets go—

the stuff of white day comes forth
as if called like Lazarus
to repeat its first formation,

at noon the substance of whiteday
shatters nightshade defining
every snowbound cranny & nook
each hollow & hump with strokes of shadow
as Franz Kline once bold-stroked
canvas with a brush;

but nightshade too repeats,
never sleeps, stutters with day
in pleats of time

whiteday now called to wrap itself again
in winding sheets until the day light
of imaginary sublime.

Jim Culleny
12/4/19

Painting by Franz Kline