Furies Are Insatiable Creditors
1.
a bridge isn't my metaphor for anything,
just a path through the air for the enterprising
but flightless.
if you want a metaphor from me,
start down there in the mud.
climb up without a bank
or tree; push your weight against the earth,
and expect her to move.
feel her chilly, thin blood sucking at your tiny feet.
fill your eyes with the sun and your chest with the sky,
you celestial microcosm of flightless enterprise;
your bowels are packed with mud and there is a tree
growing from your throat; can you feel it?-
your voice budding, seeds lifting on channels
of wind coursing up from your dismay
at learning you've grown roots:
you didn't mean to,
but here they are.
i won't tell you it's not such a bad thing.
in truth, it's fucking tragic-
the memory of weightlessness,
the impossibility of returning
entirely to seed.
2.
jimmy crack'd corn and i don't care.
you can make a necklace of my teeth
and call it religion, call it art,
call it love, i didn't come here to jump,
but to fall. i don't believe that any of you
will hold me up, least of all the earth.
3.
job learned gratitude before suffering.
(the devil's not done arguing)
4.
truth is only the most credible illusion
you can muster. the only thing I have
on credit is my breath.
5.
i am running out of breath.
i am out of breath and running.
I am outrunning breath.
6.
my son's black heart is none of your business,
and you didn't ask. my health is none of your business,
and you didn't ask. you asked for my praise
and thought me obscene when I gave it.
keep your regard, your tin plates hoarded
like gold. my bag of junk is heavy
and i am thin with loathing.
6.
satan is the insistent self.
6.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition: entry
beast: noun; 2. animal nature as opposed to intellect or spirit.
(7).
because we still push against the earth
and expect her to move.