"Neither heaven nor earth will be at peace if
I don't find it on my goddamned desk
before six," snarled Julius Caesar into his cell
to the smell of ubiquitous coffee.
I was blended in line, and could see all:
Caesar's smart sharkskin-grey suit clearly
some modern beguilement to help him blend, too.
Gone were silks linens and laurels,
I only knew him from the meridians of his face
and the crash of command in his baritone,
I had known that heartfelt stone and all its loss
grown from titanic achievement. This man
had scaled Olympuses to clasp his wreaths
and wore them well, though stonewise.

But then, in that instant of plastic smiles and disco rain, I strode away from my first cradle. The air was northern and sliced my lungs open into startling clarity sliced my brain open into startling clarity. And when I looked around, I saw, and when I felt around, I touched. My trunk was slapped into shape, and in a blazing radio tower of language it became un-unique. I fuzzed my skull and rejected the lull and became recognizably human.

sought
desperate
and double-sought. at last
inside embracing entombment
the skull-dome of earth my
mother
discovers the maiden intellect kidnapped by
further tomorrows and slakes my thirst
on the blood-hungry brain beneath the hills of nemea.
searching for any warm
opening into comprehension in the cave,
am i the sa-
vior the damsel or the beast?

Who can sing his heart?
Garroted by sins long gone,
I am a may-fly.

Creek flows ever on,
Yellow blossom drifts downstream.
What is permanence?

A snake sheds his skin.
A man sheds his face the same.
No pearl is alike.

The elderly psychopomp speaks his gullet words
Preparing me as charity for birds.

I smelled snow and sweat when I drew breath
Though now I must give charity to birds.

Juniper and fire become alms for the air
As I now must give charity to birds.

The vultures are first, their beaks are the strongest,
They take the meat of my charity for birds.