The Loose Coil
(Meditations on the closed universe, after painting by Paul Klee)
The broken coil leaps with anticipation
as though the atmosphere itself has set
it free: a wild and impetuous spring as
it grabs for air, and the artist sees
something contained beneath the initial
thread of white light it has become.
It rises in its arc, then dips,
becoming black as it continues its
assured springing amidst a surround
of white and murky gray tapestry,
looping once again into irregularity
of shape, rising and falling in wider
and wider arcs: loop after loop
after loop as the black line seeks its
orbit, sprung forever from its tension,
covering a barely navigable sea of gray
beneath until the loops finally settle,
cease to oscillate, are freely frozen
in this artistic space.