Image borrowed from BingStefan Hyner
Another segment of the dream
holds him by the neck
…………there is nothing for this world
to recognize, as it has always done
(behind closed eyes
pure & just
………………all shadows fuse
………………into bare landscapes, while
the murderers clean
each others teeth
……………………..& step over
……………………..the bloody bag of progress
……………………..to dream up another world
WHAT THE SLEEPER SAYS
A Lesson
Jerome Rothenberg
to leave this world & not to know it
more than we did at birth to know
the mystery of murder not a mystery
with us forever
……………………………where the wall
enclosing us begins to burn
the eye spins in its socket
men with hammers change the faces
of those we love……they drag them
slithering & pale behind their wheels
they make a vortex for the restless dead
a tide of blood to wade through
where the sleeper says: it is too cold
he says: my hand is looking for a hand
he says: the paper has erased its words
& fallen dumb
he says: I do not know my name
he says: my name is no name
when we ask about the lesson of his death
he says: a lesson learned by rote
is not a lesson
Posted over on Poems & Poetics
No comments:
Post a Comment