inside a grave
bones, the skulls
you knew before you saw
and you looked anyway
because horror cleaves to time
now we see inside a grave
how thin the veil
.
relearn the lessons of the dead
original sin for the anxious
you’re neither the worst nor the best
learn to breathe
the mirror cracks from side to side
nervous breakdown or war or both
.
Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem. Amen.
.
well you have to laugh
what lives lives; what dies lives; what lives dies
you go to a museum and you envy the 6AD people
for reasons you can’t quite say
and today the gardens are open
and you look at all the old notes that say
“theory of the intense”
“even the sun has a dark side”
“dreaming about glass that doesn’t break”
“uppers and downers and sideways drugs”
“your moralism was your fun. Postmodern authoritarianism”
and
“men use spreadsheets to work out what is going on”
and the snake in your care died
