Up soft light, soothing light,
From out the corner of the room,
Deep linted pocket,
Mingle with the day light,
Overcome, waft over the surface of the earth—
And show us things
Glinting and easy,
As we always wished them to be,
As we know them to be,
And guide us out the room
And into the world, we pray.
His face lounges back—
He can’t help it—
Finds it fashioned into a kabuki mask—
Proscenium-arched eyes,
An ever-pursed mouth
Ever-tasting the faint tincture
Of earthy, earth-buried metal,
And all over
Slashing lines that seem careless,
Random- but under scrutinous glare
Spell out that which we all know
But dread to utter aloud.
We’ve been here for
Long. Long long.
It all seems beautifully familiar
Sometimes, but then there are
The corners, the dark spaces
That come to be
Canyons, craters, crevasses,
Velvety and deep,
Full of gravity,
Sounding in us a primitive howl,
At a depth we dare not fathom.
When we drift towards the door
Or bring our noses to the window glass
Our chest constricts, contorts and collapses
Unto itself,
And our heart goes on beating
In the black gaping maw,
The belching beats echoing round
The vast darkened auditorium
Whose ceiling reaches
We know not how high,
Growing anxious, louder—
So we have to crumple upon the precipice
And return to the room
Whose dimensions are known and comfortable,
And do not weigh upon us in uncertainty—
Where we run our hands, our weak fingers
Over the carpet and luxuriate in its undulating waves,
A bed of grass slicked with water the scent of camphor,
A pinch of dewy skin unclasped, breathing in blood,
And all the while waiting half-expectant
For the liberating light, revealing light,
Gentle and angelic.
We once had lives outside the room—
Children and parent, friends, lovers,
And it was all beautiful, glinting,
A great pulsating mass of humanity—
We once mourned for its absence,
Stared at the maw of the doorway
And cursed, sotto voce-
But now we supplicate only that it
Continues on without us, besides us
And hope, heat of shame,
That the exterminating light
Trailing angel wings,
Never rises up out the corner of the room,
Never brings us to the precipice and
The depth beyond.