Nine Skathons of Sxwaixwe

#107

Sxwaixwe, they say, came from the union
   of a garden slug
& a raven... Few have ever seen
   his chartreuse scales, his
esplumoir; many have heard his laughter.

#108

Sxwaixwe laughs like a baby crying.
   Sxwaixwe wears a tall
black silk hat, & lives beneath the Sound.
   He has clairvoyance;
his cranium's tetrahedron-shaped.

#109

There is a book belongs to Sxwaixwe.
   In it, he records
ev'rything that happens: past, present,
   & future, but not
in any particular order.

#110

I saw Sxwaixwe once, walking backwards
   in Pike Place Market
with his hat & his multicolor
   coat. I watched him stop
& buy a vista of Mt Hekla.

#111

Sxwaixwe appears sometimes in your dreams
   but only in part:
headless torso; wings & hat alone...
   He is an omen
of erratic luck & weird events.

#112

Sxwaixwe gives oracles in Scrabble
   takings you have to
anagrammatize yourself into
   sense; visions seen
in oily puddles; shrieks of seagulls...

#113

Without Sxwaixwe we would have no fog,
   espresso, leather
jackets, or yellow trees in autumn.
   (Especially sacred
to Sxwaixwe is Caffe Medicí...)

#114

Squid-headed Cthulhu, Sxwaixwe, & the
   Jesus of twoway
cards & Mexican gilt-framed icons
   are siblings, slug-born,
but engendered by diff'rent Fathers.

#115

Sxwaixwe gave me this Form, to notate
   my ruminations,
weave coincidences, & invoke
   the spirits of this
gray-green crowded water-ruled abode.

01 10 92
[These were part of my attempt to contact a Coast Salish deity, one that resided at the bottom of Puget Sound, for my own purposes.]