Vishnu

i. (matsya - fish)
in the beginning, there was silver;
mercury inscribing cuneiform
beneath the bloodwork of your skewed scales,
scrawling preserver
throughout salt-drenched lungs.

and you laced clear planets into your slipstream,
wrapped solar systems in translucence.
ignoring all the shattered galaxies. ignoring
how easily their frail orbits
broke.

ii. (kurma - turtle)
your ribcage screamed a shattered warcry
of not-quite-god and less-than-human;
a shark's-tooth carapace crushed in.  

forgotten names clawed out your sternum.
your spine fused into your biting back.

iii. (varaha - boar)
razor-wireless shrieked of true tales
thieved by midnight's neon-tripped true bones.

gunshot eyelids half-horizon,
you rose, arpeggio
of stop.

iv. (narasimha – half-man, half-lion)
he walked like christian gods on holy
breaking waves of children's bowed backs.

a crooked tooth inside you turned,
crucified his smug steel-gray blue.

v. (vamana - dwarf)
eras of electrons scratched
themselves into your heels
when you slunk high as stone's glory
through the his wandering-street veins.

you were a death's cap, camouflaging
his new moon. by the time he realized
he was lightless, it was already
much too late.

vi. (parasurama)
children devoured the magpie's crumbled throne;
skeletons starving down
all of his crown's glory.

you're a god, you crooned softly
to your corkscrew-crushed spine.
you're a god, you lied loudly.
his wife wailed less-than-human.

vii. (rama – perfect warrior)
you captured a sea breeze,
selkie seraphim pelt. river nails
down a wavesong,
your jagged grin refrains.  

hooked her weak breath in your palms,
clutched her cold name in your chest.
in sleep she screamed your palms.
convince yourself it was her rest.

viii. (krishna – mentally advanced man)
you held his head steady
as he choked down quicksilver.

you'd forced down madness too,
for your family's painted-on name.

ix. (buddha – enlightened one)
and then you discovered
how to stop fighting mercy.

understanding that gods and rivers
would never cease to writhe.  

x. (kalki - time)
blind eyes to horizon, wait for crimson to charge after.
white as rabies froth, your stallion screams murder,
slams eight thick hooves down.

the world's translucence shatters.

you will recollect
                                )everything.(