Claire Beynon

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KATABATIKOS

The continent and her rebel wind

She never sleeps deep REM sleep.
No. She tosses and turns

cannot lie still with bones
and blood at ease, always keeps one eye

open. The wind might stir at any time
touch her cold white skin, travel every willing curve

and contour. She hears him long before he comes
without warning, his hands trace her upper valleys

her mountains and hanging glaciers
travel her frozen coastline.

She anticipates him as the beloved awaits a lover.
There’s nothing silent or passive about them.

And when all is said and done, they both know
their meeting will shake them - it always does

but see, it’s nothing more than temporary dishevelment.

Theirs is a relationship refined by this curiously lyrical insistence.

Site design inspired by Claire Beynon's Katabatikos VII and Flag Song.