christ

i am reborn in far off lebanon

mosaic spring heralded by a carpet of poppy

golden carp swim up honeyed streams and echo in reflection

the frenzied mating of the ibis

the cocoon of the bat

in between fig trees taller than clouds strides a noble lion

the crush of grapes leads to such a fine fine wine

yes drink if you are thirsty

drink and sleep and dream

oh the gentle sun nudges me forward in your footsteps

we pass shrine after shrine on the road to joppa

we hear of miracles we hear of devils

in the quiet of cities we can only see

the forest implies itself upon arrival

a great mossy portal

feeling of being watched

the snake says nothing

the worm broods in earth

a monkey or two in the canopy

their sad human eyes trapped inside animal

oh yes i see everything now

even the distant sea which burnt far off in morning

even the garden with white walls where you played as a child

my thoughts tremble upon uttering these words

we loved each other more than this world deserved

my hands slump from wrists

mammon hammers me

male day upon female night

male wisdom within female magic

male anger inside female scorn

an egret at the edge of a heavenly lake

the bright green frog in its mouth represents mankind

the clear blue water at its feet represents ripples in time

the egg in its nest represents the ever replenishing future

where my heart exists in song

my father moving through the mountains snows

my mother at the edge of solomons pool

my wild sister at the frontier of her glorious madness

pleasured insane by the sentience of all things

each word had its own colour

each colour had its own sound

she can perceive with ease a creatures name for itself

her eyes fly with birds she has tamed

as she lingers alone at the end of a day

awaking from reveries given by god

as eden was stolen by harlots and thieves

and the tigris was filled with the blood of our adam

and it floated through memory staining the banks

it set man and woman together apart

both expect mercy but neither will give it

both need forgiveness though neither will have it

with one eye i can see the passing decades

with another the rich threads of each second dissolve

i know that my saviour kneels in clairvoyance

and hearing the throb of the sin in this world

and my love dressed in black stands at a funeral

and whose grave is that if it is not mine?

and my children in roses under her bluest of sky

and my friend strides beside me grim and so fair

and our arrows are knowledge of nature and science

we never ask how we only ask why

go home to your wives and lay down in love

go home to your beds and lay down in sleep

tomorrow again the morning star rises

spirit nature love dream come

if i am indeed your son and your sun

and your only one

i ask you this and only this

reverse treacherous time which is up to my neck

more life is all i crave

more flowers more hours more lovely days of summer

a refuge from winters cloying claw

dark bloody winter with his train of frost ghost

dead soulless winter quiet like death

hard hollow winter with pieces of skin

whitened black winter his face is a skull

i once knew a woman in nescient egypt

her magic was growing stronger each year

but all of her hemlock and philtres of nepenthe

couldnt absolve me from each fleeting  minute

and none of her fingers all ringed in mute sapphire

and none of her toes all ringed in screaming gold

and none of her souls surrounded by jet

and  none of her prayers which were guided by light

and none of her sisters who were spirits of trees

the oak and the fir and the spruce and the pine

they danced with the fauns at the back of her dreams

a fever she got when she visited tyre

a wind had swept out of the mountains in rage

and it visited plagues on the temples of set

that same old serpent who constricts this globe

the one who offered  fruit to another mans wife

the one who descends in a fog of thick blackness

shadow the sun in a shroud of cold intent

no day can come through eclipses like that

no star may break through those raptured in lies

but my saviour with  his armageddon eyes

he lives and he breathes and he hears and he sees

the planet we standing on suddenly gone

and he smiles and is secretly pleased