Natural Bridge

Out across the limestone arch

it is gritty dark. Dusk holds crisply,

then fades. Secret fracture of support,

this bridge. Night’s heat

is lost in the plunge

from height, cold pockets

tumefied near the drop-off.

Spiders creep up each leg.

Let them. Am I fearless

or just naked fear now?

My skirt floats, thin specter,

material suffused

and circling tighter.

Firefly light flickers,

soft body flashes

in the blackness. I balance

between where it finds me

and shocks past.

The dark question of my mouth,

contrary to such muted current,

stays dark.

But I am inhabited,

the momentary

turning of my figure up the path so deliberate

it is not my carried self, my skin

translucent and vaporous. I enter

as if earned by this possession,

singed with my animal scent.

Mark me as soundless

and know I will remain that way.

Grip my throat’s white gulch.