Na (Sodium)

Sal
sapiente:

in its purest face
provoked
to violence
by water;
palatable
when wed
to a noxious
ghost,
quelled
together
in a divided
sphere —
ligature between
fire & water,
eros & enmity;
desire
born of brine:

drawn by the sun,
white deserts
embody
the goddess;
we strive
to be worthy
of her,
the soldier’s
salary,
offered
in hospitality,
though
spilled
by Judas,
Lot’s wife
left behind,

a little
on our bread,
salvation,
too much,

our demise,
as it fills
the greatest oceans
&
the slightest
vessels
of our frame;
a precarious
balance
of toxins:
the eternal
ring
of
rings.


Robert René Galván is a Shortlist Winner Nominee in the 2018 Adelaide Literary Award for Best Poem, his latest collection of poems is entitled Meteors (Lux Nova Press).