EPISODE [fr. Gk. Epeisodion f. eisodos entry (eis into + hodos way)]
A human shadow turned inside-out
and the whole town saw.
Himself eclipsed, some said meth,
speed, crazy, get him out of here!
How silly he is, but no one knew -
How scary he is, but no one felt
ignited coal of the heart-sear
blackening pillow, smoldering mattress.
And the voices. O' the voices!
That the cult of the surface had kept tucked firm,
had kept in tiny plastic bottles
printed with my name.
The blue tablet, the capsule, and a few ending
in -zine. They tried such-and-such acid,
another that would translate "rock gas."
Or was it Narthex?
(No, that was a nave in the church for penitent women.)
They push the great, great salt
that is silky, beige, lozenge-like.
Maybe it is of the earth, in the table of elements,
but how did they figure out how to clone it?
Swallow it and sleep. Sheep?
Golden fleece and swallows dedicate to Isis
who gathered his pieces.
While he was sealed in the coffin,
she roasted the child immortal.
But this is not your myth - you're a mess!
What is the secret of bearing?
Offer the possibility not synthetic salt.
Not behavioral unit, detention center,
mental health center. Mental hell cells.
Put him somewhere he can sit and stare.
Turn on the tv, bring him a tray.
Put the fool into a trance.
The naval pharmacist's mate, my grandfather
locked in the bowels of the ship, raging.
My mother supine on the bathroom floor
as I tried to open the door.
Her heart a fish thrown to land,
gills wild for air.
Get the ativan, call me in sick.
Tell no one the truth.
Truth, beast of shining obsidian eyes.
Out of the cage, out of her cocoon.
You're out of your mind!
No, this is Psyche, from the Greek.
This is the ancients' ecstasy -
let me infect you, Dr.
Give you terror of the lock scraping open,
greeting of death come to free you
from the fear that he comes at the end.
He, the beginning of the other half of you,
from the underside, other-side unknown.
Into thunderheads and lightning-tongue,
weather of entry + way.
If a stranger beats on your door after midnight,
in his deep end, he brings the outcast gift of your own burning.
Do not call gasoline of authority.
Offer silence in your eyes
to the thoughts behind his
already dressed in black and gunshots. |