Collect Art Publication July 2023

Submerged Cathedral: after Debussy's 'La Cathedrale Engloutie'

The blue green light in the knave of the submerged cathedral.
How did it come to be under a reservoir of water?

The drought of  '77 dredged it to the surface
clotted with mud and the surface clay
tiled in hexagonal trapezoids of baked 

silt from the dregs of the waters.

The submerged cathedral would hold

Songs and poems.

Blue light, turquoise light, blue-green light.

The day would be blue every day,

the night would be black every night

and we would never see snow or rain anymore.

Never see clear stars,

they would always be constellations

in geometric fragmentation and fractals

as through dimpled glass.

The bottoms of boats would be our birds of the air

seaweed would be our plants,

coral would be our trees.

And we would never cry.

How can I cry underwater?

How would tears show?

We must find an air lock of negative space.

Up and under a bell,

the last air.

We can go inside the tenor

and breathe the last air

of the submerged cathedral.

Inside that bell all tangy with iron

will be a breath or two

Then what?

How did we end up at the bottom of this lake?

In this submerged cathedral, inside a bell,

breathing the very last

air

that there

is?