and you nearly step on a tortoise
and you nearly step on a tortoise
you think I should really slow down
.
and you are overcome in the graveyard
on this Sunday morning
.
a little bit
the sting in the eye
.
the wondering have I remembered enough yet to leave
and
why would you want to go when there is this?
and
does it matter if you have a psychopomp?
do you need one?
can you be your own companion?
and
does everybody get an angel?
and you think of this wonderful woman who told you how they assign angels to children on the basis of their character or maybe it was their spirit and you think
well maybe state schools should do that too
give you an angel, I mean
.
at least lighten the bureaucracy
a name within a name
and
you think about which religion is more democratic
and
what is the relationship between democracy and angels?
.
and do we need to make everything as hard as the thing we cannot tolerate?
and what is it that we cannot bear
when we nevertheless remain
.
what about the ruins
.
And you think there is a spirit for every place
but the locative has faded into the nowhere, the anywhere
.
and why is there a banana here?! (I confess I brought the banana)
.
and what is the tortoise eating? (honestly, it’s not the banana)
.
and why, above all, In the middle of these ruins, is there a red skip with a white painted phone number on it
.
and which gods are receiving which sacrifices
and why are there so many signs?
semiosis is a real condition
under-diagnosed!
.
and how you could spend ten years staring at this patch of dust
and you would still be no closer to it
how lovely
.
and your brain, this tired walnut
or is it a pinecone
or a pomegranate
no that is the heart
with its washes and frenzies and backwards possessions
going one way then the other
on fire
in the water
the grains rolling away
and then towards
soft
then hard
.
blasted individuum
the contained uncontained
.
you can’t believe it
but to your left two tortoises are having a fight
.
at least you think so
yapping maws
to speak or scream
like arrested dinosaur rocks, with legs
.
and you think I must really slow down
and you are glad you got everything wrong
because if you had not
you would not be here