MOMENTS BEFORE AWAKENING

by Michael Keshigian

From the bleak canister of a nightmare

the sun suddenly blazed

and he leaped out from the flames,

swept up by the wind,

cruising the fiery rays

that melted crimson layers of burning clouds,

catching a flock of cardinals,

bloodied and dripping red,

soaring then diving

like bombers on a mission,

globs of matted down,

splattering upon barren landscape,

their orange beaks

snipping gobbets of ash

from embers

that crowded the air,

gobbets that darkened his face,

slickened his hair with soot

and buried his feet

in the residual cinders,

his toes curdling

in the puddles of black rain

like the talons of a red-tailed hawk

about to yank him out of this dream.

Michael Keshigian had his 14th poetry collection, What to Do With Intangibles released by Cyberwit.net. He has been published in numerous national and international journals, including Oyez Review, Red River Review, Sierra Nevada College Review, Oklahoma Review, and Chiron Review and has appeared as feature writer in twenty publications with 7 Pushcart Prize and 3 Best Of The Net nominations.