One Poem by Daniel Christensen

 

Ancient Stone Aqueduct

 

 

Colossal tongue draped about this grim fuselage, stone that wept its grains through the winding phalanxes, what sculptor of men sought to lay its blueprints down upon the soporific wheals of blood, before the air could shed its cold ammonia clouds, before the kings could lay claim to forests ancient before the bones were scraped to barb the whistling arrow, 

 

Beveled sands stretch far the flung fragments of this cortical memory, to what great cosmic lung breathed its spiral of particulates that coalesced again into the knee you rose from to challenge the dawning measures of this desperate expanse, 

 

You, who's continual ekpyrosis pistons all from nothing, to draw the iris closed upon shoals we've struggled on our poor feet to cross, to thread these intricately patterned webs, the doom woven in our artistry, even as the devouring flame lifts its shoulder to brush us off this tremulous inch of want.

Daniel Christensen is a poet and author of speculative and high fantasy fiction. His work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including SpecPoVerse International, Trollbreath Magazine, Book XI, and Harrow House. His poem “Love Poem on Theme by Whitman” was featured in the live stage performance of Open Dance Project’s 1968. He received the Editor's Choice Award from The Last Stanza Magazine for his poem "Brooklyn." His short story “Automata” was published by The Blooming Onion Literary Magazine. Additional publications include Clepsydra Literary and Art Magazine, Florida Bards Anthology 2025, Lucky Lizard Journal, and Lunchbreak Review, among others.