To deflesh,

the shaman,

the seer,

the mystic

lacerates,

purges,

starves,

punishes,

isolates

the body

of the self.


The poet,

inventor,

entrepreneur

concentrates

the body

of the self

on the solution

of a problem

like a laser

microscope,

to deflesh.


An ordinary,

to deflesh,

removes from

the flesh

of the body

by reading,

by dreaming,

by jogging,

by gaming,

by giving,

by loving.


SACRIFICES, ALL


That pilot brags about

the size of his payload

and he forgets about

chasing a horizon.


He imagines himself

to be a volcano.

Will you permit yourself,

then, to be the virgin?


Oh, those gladiolas

that brightened Pilate’s halls,

like those gladiators,

distractions from trials.


RICHARD FIRST


Across geographies

maintaining emperors

by cults and soldiery


has been a commonplace

matter of procedure

against the populace.


Richard had good PR

since he was popular

among the troubadours.


And today, presidents

who can stay in power

are liked by journalists.



SIGNS


The philosophers,

poets, and scholars,

workers of the mind,

invented Mankind.


They made Being firm

by creating terms

and categories,

the mythic stories,

right words and patterns:


They shaped God Saturn

and then mere planet:

Elements: Senates:

Beauty: Gram: Language:

Society: Beige:

History; Prisms:

Patriotism:

Sin: Geography:

Self: Heredity:

Time: The unconscious.....

The list is endless.


These concepts define

our world by their signs.


THE CONJUGATION OF AGING


Years are no series of jumps across gulfs.

We pass through life on a conveyor belt,

paying little notice to the timelets

that pace our course on the running machine.


We only slowly accept we're the guests

of Is, Are, Was, Were, Be, Being, and Been.

Our exercise machine slows then ends

before we realize we've reached the When.