Godzilla’s Parents It was a lizard’s DNA Invigorated by an A- Bomb test and grown a size so huge There could be from it no refuge A beast emerging from the sea Supercharged at Bikini, An accident without designer, No thanks to Teller, Oppenheimer I saw it on a movie screen, The biggest lizard ever […]
Medusa Medusa slain by Perseus, To gaze would turn a king to stone, Revolting head with eyes of glass The face it showed you had to own It showed the one you really were, Schemes, evasions, lies exposed, And this the horrid power of her: Severed head, the truth of those Still the mirror shows […]
The King’s Chamber The pyramid of Khufu The King’s Chamber The sarcophagus Then imagine No empty coffin But nuclear reaction Within those tons of stone Plutonium and cobalt Demons of the desert Then, five thousand years Times five thousand years In which to guard this stone-wrapped mummy O desert night Deserted burial And restless Pharaoh […]
For My Release I spoke to the troll Under the bridge That crosses my soul Demon of malice Troll of injustice Shameful and callous Where are you from Speak, are you dumb? You rise like the scum Scum on the sea Mold on the tree Torment of me Upward it leaped From the cavern it […]
If Christ Rose From the Tomb He thinks he may have known me, but I see The uniform of 1943; Dead in all but memory, alive, He stares at me, my uncle has arrived How strange it is to meet the dead and yet There is no fearful sorrow or regret, Puzzlement and slowly formed […]
Triple Sisters Summer leaves already flying, Autumn in a rush this year, Yellow foliage is dying, What’s the season that draws near? August maybe or September Downward, onward swiftly falling, That which nothing holy hinders Equinoctial and appalling Who are we? The triple sisters Past and present, future claim, Threads of history the scissors Cut […]
They Won’t Forget Him You have so few friends anywhere A man who’s marked with ill-respect, For some a failure in affairs, Associates are false, defect Who wants to know a man of grief Admired by the stupid poor? Only some revolting thief And those who stink of fish, the boors You’re lower class, invisible […]
Pixie Led Pixie led, bewildered in the darkness Follow flame that flickers in the wildness, Near or farther off cannot be told, Sheep you wandered silly from the fold Come closer, then – but how to know how far The beacon floats ahead – or who you are, Whether in the air or in the mind, […]
An Inscription We wandered through the hills of Earth That were before so gray and mean That now by eon-founded birth And sweet spring rain were young and clean Once we saw a rock smoothed off, A surface on it faintly scribed (It was an April tender, soft The rain had washed, the sun had […]
Beneath the Weight Beneath the weight of death we’d break If God did not lift up that mass, Why? For love and mercy’s sake Until the weight of death should pass Even God had strained and groaned So heavy did our burden prove, That when He moved away that stone It was eternity He moved […]
Seven Cities Beware. Beware. Be wary as you go All around the country, trees of anger grow Some are of the oak, some are of the beech Some are of the old wood and have a higher reach Look inside the circle where seven cities burn, Of those who enter inward, none of them return, […]
I am the Seed… I am the seed that fell among the stones, Heedless sowers, yet a stem I grew, A twig, a leaf, and then stood up alone – Child of wastelands, growing I was new I was a seed among the brambles bruised, A tangled shade laced-up above my head, What lived beneath […]
Debt of Honor O Jeremiah, they threw you in a pit, The bull’s eye of derision, the target of their wit, Ridiculous foretellings, stupid fuss and feathers, Envy of prosperity and the power of his betters The era of good feeling will go on and on and on With credit from the bankers and the […]
The Canticle Far off I hear the singing of a thrush So far, in some far place, the deepest hush, There rises up a clear sweet sound of faith, Foolish one, to sing a note so brief Foolish one, no soul is there to hear Except the simple spirit of the deer, The heartless trees […]
If You Wake Phantasm, phantasma, phantom Where have you been hiding? Inside November rain Curtain of the autumn Cold and dense and straight That will not cease In the rain within the chest Where the grey heart beats I am the terror in the night Behind the rain that sleeps You were unaware That waiting […]
1927 Revolution virgin-pure Covered now in filthy sores, I wonder what he’d think of this: The paradox of class and war Between the lowly and the state – No servant of the Comintern Foretold which class the Party ate: I knew him at one hundred one Channeled Chinese generals For the International, Tangled with the […]
F-16s I heard the roar of F-16s Cross the city overhead, Sentries high on kerosene Who on their airy pickets sped And we beneath a city wall Without a stone or battlement Thought no more of our downfall That such patrolling should prevent But when the walls go up it means There is a gate […]
An Evil Dream Based on the Russian folk song: Oy, To Ne Vecher I had a dream, an evil dream For as the night was falling I Rode out upon the steppe, it seemed As if the world itself would die My horse, my crow-black horse began To shiver underneath my grip, And then in […]
Te Deum Imperium recedes, Two thousand years ago God began to bleed – Benedic, anima mea, Domino The tree receives the ax, Demons strike a blow, Furious they hack – Benedic, anima mea, Domino Furious they strike, Merciful it flows, Who can bleed the like? Benedic, anima mea, Domino Wounded is the tree, Wounded it […]
Memorial O dragon, dragon, what tower do you build? A tower built in Babylon at which the worm is skilled, Skulls are of the walls of it, mortar made of bone, Who can know the plan of it? Only I alone War and hunger are my slaves, fire is my heart With which to melt […]
And Even Shame They were drinking vodka And I heard one say: Stas, remember The prisoner we held began to plead: Let me die But we refused You will not perish when you wish But when we choose? He spoke and laughed. I saw him yesterday In that new world Where serpent death uncurls Downward […]
Fermi’s Question Answered They’ve come. They’ve come. They’ve found us, Those Earth-devoted visitors from space Or somewhere off the world apart and luminous, It may be in a time not present here or anyplace Why don’t they come to Earth, descend? Our leaders, soldiers, dignitaries wait With florid ceremonial, agreeable intent And speeches of the […]
Earendel is Here… éala éarendel engla beorhtast / ofer middangeard monnum sended – Cynewulf Earendel is here, But not where you might find him In Tolkien’s Silmarillion Nor in a barque or nao A jewel in the prow But in another sphere Earendel is here In orbit overhead Like meteors that streak their trails And […]
The Master Immortality achieved Age indefinitely deferred The new immortal sits Scrutinizing games On the full moon as a screen Synchronous in orbit Until as ages pass He slumps and snores alone While robot servants dust Whispering in limpid tones So as not to wake the master With their sub-atomic chatter Pavel July 25, 2011
