taking candy from spiritual strangers,
whose only wish is to
connive you into understanding—
that you are mortal and thus can fail,
at anything and everything you set your mind to
by using distractions of your flesh—
how it feels to be touched
echad echad
you call the names but they barely
mean anything by now
these eyes
once so pearly oceans are now
shut-off hell’s gates that call you forth,
asking you to lay down your soul for
something so fleeting as
succubus sugar lips
and you finally understand
echad echad
it calls to you as you try to walk away,
to try to better your bleeding,
your razor-sharp dreams—
so diamond clear that you cut yourself
reaching through the void
to feel it, to feel something
becoming possessed by the idea of possessing—
something—
a spirit a person a hand a light at the end of the
tunnel that you’ve been limping
and dragging yourself towards for so long
that you barely remember what it feels like
to be free
to be joyful to be happy and you wish,
you hope,
that some sovereign crown some prize
is waiting for you when you emerge from your filth
into new white clothes,
a conformation in snow,
leaving behind the Harry Potter scars the demons
the hatred you’ve spent years hoeing and raking and sowing away at—
digging your soul out from under the ivy that’s been
creeping numbing,
you look into his windows open up his chest cavity
to find the flailing flawed organs
beating madly away
I love you I love you
echad echad
but it’s too much to rip sutures out now
the skin has grown over—
the molecules trying with all their dark matter might
to heal their physics their chemistry,
the great scientists had no notion
of the neutrons and protons of the spirit
the Holy Spirit of all the ages,
combine, puzzle pieces that confuse and puzzle
your very matter and mass of existence
why do you love how do you love,
what is this
echad echad
friends who wish to become guardian angels
when they fall through the void,
but who find themselves already there—
living skeletons living shrouds—
I want to help but step back stand back
let the bomb implode without absorbing the fallout,
and sometimes I fear I’m becoming a fallen angel too,
the youth and light splintering through
the windows of the houses that sometimes I swear I see
specters spiraling through—
so I constantly exorcise the notion of darkness from
within the very abyss of my cranial lobes
without lobotomizing myself from the pain
of two thousand years of history
cry for the Biblical hysteria
can you hear it—
nearby the horizon you should hear the hero
dragging crucifixes as chains
and sin, sweet sour sin,
is the taste in my mouth every morning,
no matter how many times I swish the mouthwash—
I’m constantly reminded of the fact that I am human
and thus cannot attain angelic security in my beliefs—
bless me again for I will fall
I will feel
this anxiety until the second
Saint Peter ushers my soul into eternity—
I can hear my track record echoing now—
ringing a hollow sound—
every time I convince myself of one more vain day
one more lustful night,
every time I see your eyes,
wide as Horus’s,
but inside I see Cerberus snarling against his choke collar,
so I continue calling out
over my shoulder as I flee
echad echad
for at the center of this infinity fold lies love,
for this is a metaphor,
for monsters of Hades dirtying the waters of our minds,
having us believe that lust equals love
as E equals MC squared,
but it’s not exact except for exaltation
so it echoes the old adage
echad echad
pink ribbon scars
he tastes like you but sweeter—
anthems of our childhood that want us to feel
like we’re not alone but what is there really—
to help—
and why isn’t every drop from Heaven holy water,
so that every time the rains come our past lives wash away
and we are born anew—
Dios Mio! Mein Gott!
crying S.O.S. S.O.S.—
what would Saint Augustine say in our present state,
ICXC drawing the sign in glittering gold to
protect to bless to save
our simian style souls,
and Twain asked who prayed for the devil
the precursor to the apple-fall,
Newton style,
and it is God,
God prays for the most fallen of all,
so why do I find in my heart that it is so hard
to forgive those who have done so little
in comparison—
sing the baptismal rite,
sing ICXC,
letting our sins be scrubbed through cross-like metaphors,
but what truly is my cross to bear—
to always fall into a love so poisonous
as Eve’s apple as Snow White’s apple—
I’ve drifted I know
but I sift through the sieve of my body,
searching through the oats and grain to find the seeds
that fell on ground not hallowed,
to recultivate them to grow—
Lord knows my rut my routine
is as bad as the next heathen’s,
my dress hangs on my frame,
a skeleton queen
trying to gorge my heart out on a love not pure
a life not fulfilled,
help me I pray—
this is my cry—
my anxious mind feeds off of trying to decode
the taps on the glass of eternity,
trying to reach through impenetrable planets to ask—
what is this love I want it so bad
echad echad
I’m a baker’s making of nature and nurture,
trying to unearth from the dregs of the soul
the meaning the feeling
of why of what of how
but finally finding that no matter how maddeningly
brilliant,
how beautiful and ******,
we cannot know the mind of God—
we are not titans,
we are not the same stuff of myths of legends of angels,
and I cry, I cry, I beg and cry,
my beggar’s prayer is to know
when I have been given such grace,
why am I still greedy for more—
for I read to you from a play,
I read to you from poetry that you claim is not about you
but it is,
for only you have the dichotomy of fast knives
and feather kindness that I could express
so eloquently,
but you don’t understand you will never understand
the marrow of my faith in a God that you believe you are as strong as,
even as I plead you to stop playing with this soul
you have been so graciously given,
because you are dazzled by other
seemingly stronger things in this life,
your eyes becoming clouded by this idea that you are immortal
even as your heart palpitates a warning to slow—
to slow it down—
I’ve seen so many brought down by these myths of power
and magic, candles burning brightly
now snuffed and made silent by spirits you know naught of,
and I cannot stress the simple thing that strength
is more than pride and Samson-ian body girth,
but you battle away these tried truths in
the face of temptations,
giving up and throwing down the sword that was handed
to you to fight to persevere
and I see—
I see I see I see—
the demons that you fight are titans in your shadow,
even in mine, they are tall,
and I have to let you go because it is slowly becoming too much
too hard to handle the reins of this bucking rearing thing
that was once love,
because no matter how much of my sloppy dripping heart
I throw in your face
you will never understand the depths the dark recesses
of why, of how,
I came to be in
echad echad.