in the midst of snail dreams

Corrugated planet stacked brick upon stone
crust under a fine dust coat
of death and detritus.

He strums alus, a
jewel of false iniquity
born of unworldly prescience
fielded in gilded pastures by
the goddess of dearth,
but travels in verse
inverse to the logic of millennium.

Snail prince on a century's old trail
of feculence.
He cometh and blesses
verdant tresses for the foot to tread,
and vision alights with soaring heart.

Soul and eye stroll arm in arm
on rock and grass as one
while hand and fist fold
thick layers of crust and
even out the low spots
for industries profit
giving mollusks pause to
bemoan and take to the
heavens, sealed in an intergalactic shell
and puffing like a stargazing nautilus,
trading songs for unearthly green vales.