Cannelure

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cannelure

kind of a peculiar word:

the groove of a projectile

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such as a bullet

 

etched around the rifle round

keeping it sound in its place

secure in its casing

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then winding like a toothy smile
as it describes the spiral of that round

revolving over the ground

 

reaching across those vast and intimate distances

 

cracking and resounding starts of sound

as the air is stretched and
snapped
like the fibers of some stringed instrument

played by some virtuosic maestro

 

and how the notes go

soaring, piercing, penetrating

projections of power across

the panoramas of the vistas

that we so violently occupy

beauty in lethality

 

like the writhing rainbow of some rock snake

or the silent gaze of some predatory shape

lurking in the deep
the arc of an Asian dagger

the stalk of a jungle panther

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the Blackhawk formation racing through the night the assaulters alighting
their lasers seeking, then finding
the darkness biding

 

the round spiraling through the night

as we revolve in this our flight
on our earth around our sun
in this course through time and space

orbits within orbits

millions of particles
racing and colliding
in crescendos of harmony and violence

a symphony of dissonance
distilled into the spiral of an alloy round

burning a tracer comet trail
describing a journey
a narrative arcing toward an ending
a metal messenger winding its way
to whatever home it may find
in bone or flesh or rock or desert earth