Ekphrasis

Let’s paint with light
All things that come before us,
Rejoice in present tenses of
Actions passed to and fro
Across Earth’s epidermis (and
Within its neural circuits).
Cast all your votes for being,
Taking time to taste your surface
With fingers fine and oh-so mighty,
Gently wake electric currents
Deep beneath your groove-worn skin.
Expatriate all uncertainty
Of terrors inked in books
That augur baleful human agony;
Celebrate what’s here and now,
And conduct chromatic ecstasy.

—Thomas Brodhead, 18 January 2017