poetomachia

Each man comforted by a portable god
Each man walking into a hurricane
Each man viable,
Standing

Vapid and victorious
Mid-club hunkered-down
Arranging, replacing, looping a presence
Throwing dice
Snatching their own bodies

Each man comforted by a portable god
Each man walking bald-faced
Upbeat, undeterred
Joining hands on stage

Each man sporting
A portable god

The spinning world is crushing you again
My blood soaked hands carry away your stain
And all you can ask is to begin again
Or to stop it, come down, and start my reign

There is no other way to be
There is no freedom without fee

Kingdom symbols of organic fabric
Reed ruled and beaten in quick succession
According to a foretold unread rubric
Hail coronated at my secession

There is no life outside of me
There is no hope that you can see

burgeoning faith
belief is strong, circumstance unseen
can equations contain

bizarre awakening
underwhelming renewal, holiness obscene
money won’t retain

discount encounter
repelling presence, fearful attraction
cockatrice disdain

colorful overcast
uncharted discourse, unwilling retraction
nothing will remain

sentence unappended
conviction eviction, knowable dark depths
abundantly obtain

In these upside down days, keep me upright
Keep me up late saying what you are

despite your designer apparel
I still know you as near feral

I can feel the life hot inside me
Jittery in my wired cage
Running in circles, madly dashing
Eighty / two hundred and no presage

Heedless and headlong never knowing
The wall, an afterthought discovery
Forepaws grounded, now to find good basis
Loins twist quickly in recovery

He reaches out sideways
Tries so hard for one so noble
Unnoticed
Unfazed
Patient, proud, high, mighty
Hopeful and fatherly
From a distance ever near
You see his shape
Substantial
His imprint
Kind, Terrible
Moving slowly
Going away only to come back again
As dependable, as important, as your next breath
Unnoticed

Gliding through the vapors hovering about the earth
Cresting on sight of the curve
I breathe in silently
Like a shark in the water
Choosing my path and changing my mind with a bend and a twist
I knock at your front door
It is you I choose
I smile and wait for your answer
Ready to glide off again
At the slightest hesitation

She pretends to be alive to the passion of it all
But inside she is black and coal
I’m lost in the rush to accomplish and goal
Meanwhile, there is dying within my soul

Wherever I go
The Fires follow
Are they taunting me
Or stalking me?
What is their business?

I have become strange to myself
And the wind treats me like an alien
Cooling me only if it must
Baking me when it can spare
Heat from my desert

I look down, and I see the ant.
He seems to pause in recognition.
But he is only rearranging his load
Without thinking
He is automatic

And so it goes
As the continents float by
With plans for the distant future
While I am called to the present
To make amends
And batten down
My trouble

running through
neither dwelling in
nor fleeing by
wings with shallow draft