THIS WAS A METAL PRAIRIE

 The wind is soaring swiftly. Coursing the land, coasting with serpentine slither. One that neither touches but on its sheer gliding weight the ears and leafs sway mono-directionally -- a sudden encompassing wave of roaring gust. But if they really do touch; one a breeze caressing the stalks and hairs as the airs fork between strands still merging from the splits; nobody sees it. Yet visibly alluring the unfolding effects.

  Until spirits from the netherworld are unleashed. An inanimate mosaic intertwined to protrusions of a lively spine. The heart of the spiraling machine. Firmly as put together by the seeds it sowed, and the fruits it reaped. The catch-22 it helped horn.

  Sometimes a hurricane emerges. Enough energy has been piled up. The howling void is whirling, pulling, tugging vulnerable flames. Building the ultimate fire and the belly finally gets tugged hard enough to release a sonic outburst. Gorging trenches and hellholes, upturning sods. Mangling the hay and the rusted needles.

  ...

  Bordering the north a fiord; with increased trudge, snow is no longer a sighting. First it's the subzero soils. Pebbles that see sun zero. Collecting patches and tracts until white engulfs all. The pines get lonelier and submit to dispersing. The sorrow is pictured by still monochrome clouds on fluid recurring crests, at-times-mist-engulfed lakes. The difference grays out with increased frost.

  Anchors of the steadfast ship spread the clawed tentacles into the deep reaches of the sea. Where years ago Viking ships rocked and pierced waves onwards to battlefronts. Leviathans became the guardians. How so! These ones were means of taming the wild. The Titan of them all. The demigod. It is not a myth.

  Further down draws warmth. Windy plains and buttes eroded to smoothness. Partly dustless at the plateaus with the flour sand particles pulled to the mire. Heavy as palm boughs sluggishly descending into the oasis. On still days, the smoke gets too thick to rise efficiently! The red vast-lands espouses its creatures come nightfall. This is not Mars.

  And suddenly the occult starts bending; once nightlife rears up. Astrology starts coalescing starlit auras with celestial measure. The secrets of the stars blending forth into the mystery. Onwards into the cosmos!