A Sequence

inelegant echo
of an incomplete dream—

awake to a dark
even the dead can’t diminish

where wheels of the will

spin effortlessly

beyond self’s control

into dawn’s red void

***

each house
is less

than what
it was

when we
were one

with what
they were

***
pure word
pure mind

I am become
the thing

I contemplate

***

humility
born of
becoming—
of order
become
disorder
become
harmony

***
make of this
silence
a space

and of this space

a place
of recompense—

birth
and death
and birth

again
and again
and again

***

nothing to prove

nothing to escape

nothing to bother
with

except
what is

***
a spindle turns
on the knees
of necessity

weaving
a harmony
only angels hear—

our eyes
were made
to see the stars—

our ears
to hear
star’s whispers—

as hammer
to anvil
is silence

to the smith—
as fisherman
deaf to

the rush
of the water
on which

they float
so the sounds
of heaven are

to all enclosed
in fleshes’
sediment
***

all alone
in a wilderness
of things—

by burning
to become
one—

immortality
of ash— desire’s
constancy—

***

transcendent
emptiness

become
pregnant void

become
plenum spent

***
God’s the landlord
to whom men pay rent—

Satan is the loan shark

to whom debts accrue—

just so God’s requirements

become the devil’s due

***

nix the drift

or fix it—

I’m an abrupt
disruptor—

forget what
the forger pledges—

you’re nobody’s
mentor—

nobody’s friend—
the one answer

you offered
is more than
 the filched coin
can pay for—

father of no child—
inventor

of nothing—
mend your

fences— defend
your end

***

how swift the nipple lifts

to sate a baby’s thirst—

no matter what the distance

the blesséd nourish the cursed—

we are our own protectors

for better or for worse