Seahorse, Part I

Hey y'all. This is part I of Seahorse, a multi-panelled 'epic' poem that's basically my imaginative meditation on the natural history of the seahorse. A more proper preface will come later, when the later chapters get underway. I'd hopefully be back in the coming week with more new things to share. 

I

Before celestial grids mapped 
onto the dark ribs of the universe
-blue the planet was yet, instead
a mirrored canopy, endlessly exciting
silver of its mirage uncertain

A star clove in the near, cosmic geyser
splaying zest against jetted stream. 
Of Earth's clay bosom a flame consummate,
charring deep-sink under glazed crests
that charged towards light as spirit.

Air leadened to stone. Across alabaster
bed-cheek charted currents afoot
till bone-pith failed and
the dead rock smoothed over, combing 
countenance of shell-white dunes.

Mid-tide the sky broke, sheer underbelly
burst through by whitewater. Curdling
eddies the wash flushed milky over gullied
flanks, creamed chaste summits in
sap profuse and lapped silk-strand.

Deluge ebbed to dew, and by creep 
doused the moorlands a peat-dank.
Beneath blushed moss of laminate silt
Arched equine nape, ridged coronet
twined to upturned snout.

When the flood rose and its shoals pushed head
A tentative creature came to life