I dreamt one night

I dreamt one night

that the universe was full of worlds

that humanity could inhabit

and the people there had

enough minerals in their bones

to outstrip all the mines of earth.

I dreamt that night

that all the people were kind

they built a great industrial plant

somewhere in time

that all their bones could be mined

clean and efficiently

… for a little fee.

It’s a terrible thing to be

It’s a terrible thing to be

God’s left hand, to be

the only stupid goat in the flock

munching the thorny crown

yet the comic show goes on

a circus feast of

the quintessential blood

of the virgin’s ill begotten

costumed clown almighty

uttering words in various shades

of stupidity

meaningless and forgotten

in spoofs of meaningless morals

the self is

foist and animate,

smitten and crushed

by the careless hand of God

I defy I rage

It is this I: God’s uncovered shame

drunk deep of sweeter grapes

Yet I live poisoned

by the toxic myths of the pure

of the holy and the insane

mingled in the wound

of bloody birth

made flesh by a woman

by the sins of my fathers

and I sing a litany

in praise of God’s mistakes

I is death today…

it’s a terrible thing

to be God’s left hand.

(27 April 2005)

A Villanelle

A Villanelle

I live a stranger in my life

a villanelle I cannot escape

with a parody in every line

a requiem mass I celebrate

as my annual rite of passage

I live a stranger in my life

every year I suffer a deja vu

of my posthumous life

with a parody in every line

my dreams run unabated

in my celluloid brain

I live a stranger in my life

I cannot close my eyes

and the script repeats over

with a parody in every line

but there are no shackles

and yet there is no escape

I live a stranger in my life

with a parody in every line

(30 April 2005)