The Zodiac Cycle or a really long look at the night sky
Let's start with water pouring from his vase,
his hands untiring from his heavy burden;
over his legs gold cords lay interlaced,
and in the water twin shapes have been lured in,
long golden cord connecting tail to tail
so they don't lose each other in the stars,
their backs two gentle curves of shimmering scales.
Far sharper curve his horns; his eyes seek Mars,
though now he rests deservedly from battle,
Both battering ram and sacrificial lamb.
He's not alone among celestial cattle,
Sharing his hoofs and horns and even plan
with one who too had seas to cross and much to carry.
(or maybe was kept walled, then fooled with string?)
his head is crowned with horns so sharp it's eerie
but tipped with gold, befitting of a king.
eastward: two kingsons, each himself but half,
heads bowed together, hair swept by cosmic wind.
eternity apart, or to be pictographs -
that was no choice for souls so twined and twinned.
their shadow hides twin pincers, needle-knifed,
of one who's spear and shield, sorrow and spite,
of one who rose to cosmic heights through strife;
a fighter and a predator. And right
next to him rises to the fight another beast:
maned head held proudly high and roaring deep;
star tipped his claws, each night a hunt, each fight a feast -
And to the east instead she teaches how to reap
and how to sow; her footsteps sprout new lights,
And galaxies awaken where she gazes,
And slowly perish once she turns aside;
she's learned too much of balances and spaces.
A different kind of balance keeps another:
picked from the hand of justice, weighting (lifes deeds) souls,
and passing judgement tirelessly, without a bother,
from clemency to hemlock poison. Then there's her:
raised stinger dripping starry venom still,
forever hunting her last prey, alert and ready,
as sharp as her own tail her focused will;
as sharp – his arrowhead, nocked and aimed steady
at her, eternally his guarded charge.
Eternity has left him wise and bored.
He is half-man, his hoofs are dark and large;
She too is caught in halves between two worlds
She's been at home at neither sea nor land,
For she has hoofs, and fur, and fins, and scales,
And with this look at her, let's end
with water pouring on her shimmering tail.