Hubris

Unaltered by caprice,
Unaffected by the inconvenience
Of others’ truths.
White-knuckled, clinging
To all the me that shan’t
Have changed since
Change was first conceived:
     Bitten.

Of lore, when North was starred,
The universe earth-centered
And Christ was sinless,
And right was written
On scrolls or tablets
Or parchment or cave walls:
Shadows cast by conquered fire:
     Words.

By Egyptians or Jews, or
By Greeks or Romans, or
By Aztecs or Mayans, or
By French or Americans, or
By Arab Springers:
By God’s own hand
Codified in wisdom:
     Law.

Against all assaults,
Against the world,
Against usurpful progress:
Against Communism,
Against Socialism,
Against tyranny afar,
Against myself:
     War.

Unalterable me, truth-imbued
At the cosmos’ conception:

Before I teamed with Stalin
    Against Hitler and Tojo
Before I made three-fifth’d men
     Whole, invested souls,
Before I heard the liturgy in Latin,
      Against pre-uttered vulgate,
Before I made Earth flat,
     Against the merciless horizon,
Before I burned the Alexandrian library,
     Against demonic lies,
Before I spied the heavens,
     Against unmagnified nearness,
Before I separated day from night
     Against the stagnant backdrop
         Of the unborn
               universe.
 
Before I  voted for it,
     Before I  voted against it.

Before I was Yaweh
Before I was Adam
Before I was Moses
Before I was Jesus
Before I was Muhammad
Before I was Alexander
Before I was Galileo
Before I was Newton
Before I was Blackstone
Before I was Marx
Before I was Jefferson
Before I was Lincoln
Before I was Roosevelt (Eleanor)
Before I was Gandhi
Before I was John Paul two.
 
Before I was atom,
Before I was you:

Constant and unswerving,
Always, already right.
 

Hooker

Drunk with unrequited lust
I drive.
 
Home stock notwithstanding,
Winking eye, street-side tempted,
I stop.
 
I don’t pick them up often,
Quickly negotiated,
“Get in.”
 
Hardly sure I’ll make it
On the ride home, safely sheathed
Thus far.
 
Passenger side rider,
Threatening goo explosion:
Cant’ wait.
 
The living meat beckons
Carnality tangible,
Oozing.
 
Impatiently reaching,
Blind fondling, handling fasteners,
Fumbling.
 
Gruff caresses ensue,
Dark parking lot ahead: pull off,
Pull in.
 
Neon Roman creature,
Still glowing in the distance:
Grinning.
 
Toward my prize I bend,
Hands clasped, tongue darts, mouth consumes
It whole.
 
Oh moment of weakness,
Tawdry tempter: Hot, Ready
Pizza.

From the ghosts I’d been chasing:
            Devils, saints, fathers
            Omnipresent, timeless,
            Enduring still.
 
Encrypted in memories,
Forgotten, now remembered:
            Echoes, wails, echoes,
            In hallowed space, green Commons,
            Echoing still.
 
Minutemen and patriots,
Living grounds erupt again:
            Blood-soaked, wrought, alive,
            Graveyards, book-stacks, ripe gardens
            Whispering still.
 
Quick, embrace fleeting presence,
Ancestors and progeny:
            Converge, fight, withdraw,
            Boundaries erased in haste,
            Surveying still.
 
Self-barricaded within,
Doors locked, sashes drawn, lights off:
            Spirits, texts, tombstones,      
            Where life and death cohabit,           
                        Pushing out the in,
                        Leaning against gravity,
                        Fortified in brownstone turrets,
                                    Or cellars—dungeons—safe.
                        Vexed—captive bailiff—
                                    Shadows
            Procreant still.