Teeth clenched in the sour
glut of copper
extinguished where
light dare not tread

clutched is the fading
delusions of safety
that I might wake to
find the glare of livid day

again he awaits
the ravening veneer
of wrinkled white
the cowl of Pompeii soot

the rancour of black death
yersinia Pestis
bubonic entrance
of my nightly scourge

he bows with gristle creak
a grin beneath his beak
undulation of
bone and skin

seeping digits delve within
seeking the marrow of felicity

medieval curlicue
serifs black inflection
danse macabre
palaeography

a mockery of script
the rigour garb of
acheron, leaden
sleep anoints him

shall we begin?

the malignancy
bows and gestures on
his sanctum shrouds

I have no choice
no argument
for the dark entices
alluring truths

seeping digits dwell within
seeking the marrow of felicity

follow me

I can show you
the stain of mans ambition
in the excrement of trenches
in the stench of entrails

in the trembling hands
of frightened pawns with guns
frigid in their urine fortune
of graves already dug

where wounds would cease to fester
and life clung to corpses
this irrepressible
pointless triumph

in the wreak of gangrene
in the bogs of sepsis
life sought refuge
amongst the bodies dead

why is the engine of you
comprised of toiling innocence
wrung for the oils in your
lamps, to grease your bayonets?

flesh for fresh munitions
the trade seems ever in your favour
the mauve bruise limbs offer
under sodden woollen sleeves

I can see the flutter cadence
animate life amongst pinguid ribs
the yearn from chasmal sleep
steeped in slurry pall

you hope to preserve
the tallow of you
irrational lines
demarcating

that which is worthy of living
that which is worthy of nothing

the chronology
is never sacred
the vagrant drag
is ever close

It will come
for your chalice empty
for the altar piece
asking of you for everything

Your proboscis seeks nectar
purulent leak of ages
the red of rust on shackles
in the bowels of sinless men

on the trail of tears
in the soiled blankets
you will find uncountable
marks of the guilty

you cannot possibly know
the dark that resides in man
I promise you, I can
appoint blame with accuracy

the wrongs of antiquity
it is apology you seek
The twine of binding atrocities?
The nod to our failings?

pantheon of excuses
patsy for the errant cough
we teach the young to splutter
to choke on our choices

you will open chests
amongst organs the fat
will cling and reminisce
every stolen meal

It will fondly court
and savour each flavour
and smile without guilt
at the mouth it took it from

The desires of self
enshrined from naked cell
the single combatant
drowned its kin

I am confused
that you chose to divide
in primordial brine
god and man in coitus

I fear you regret
this separation
prized asunder
spent epochs reconciling

spiritual flesh hood
ouroboros sacrifice
at the steps of Tenochtitlan
the debt of life was paid

I have trod the road to Golgotha
saw no lamb on a cross
saw the beguiled peoples
raise the throne above their heads

of a kingdom hewn of
heavens welts and abscesses
seeking recompense
for their transgresses

to ascend this endeavour
through arboreal birth canal
From which the corpse king
Adoni does breach

willingly they held Horus's seed
and fawning disciples plead
for the bleating facsimile
to usher in the end

proffer each cut
each weeping wound
give of ourselves to
the son of sky

baptismal blood of Anup
will wash his head
refuse temptation to live
and lap at his falsities

it is in the needing
the creeping digits
claw each thieving mile
for the virulent word

'I am the way'
they ruck ungraciously
all frenzied flock
to the lowest pit

You should be ashamed
You are perverse

In the collapsing
Jaundiced nova
I perceived
for the first time

a trillion entrances
a trillion exits
all sacred euphonies
of chemical consequence

I was somnambulant
I caught the gust of
matters dark antithesis
and charted courses

I watched worlds torn,
stars extend infernal arms
and hollow mouths devour
galactic calories

I found this orb
aqua marine entrancing
fell deeply in love
with the paradigm of life

to my horror
those dealt its hand
seemed wholly devoted
to its demise

this gift I prized
to know it was harboured
amongst diminished forms
whose love was death

I was Enkidu
made of lifeless clay
I swayed Gilgamesh
of arrogance

I broached conversations
with hirsute philosophers
in Athenian corridors
for want of their reasoning

to glean a notion of regret
yet I saw through epidermis
glimpsed the craving
of lustful supplication

I sought Alexandria
its scrolls held scrawled apology
I scoured millennia
did not find my quarry

the mewling Christ
no longer an only child
as prophet moulds are rendered
and problem siblings cast

with reckless abandon
you decreed usefulness of skin
reductive anatomy
diminished to function

unable to harbour life yourself
jealous you built ovarian prisons
you manufactured gods
to relinquish your blame

raised forests to burn
ancestral graves
enslaved species into
theatres of immolation

In the basement
of a tenement house
bodies interned under floors
in their blood he is risen

In his eyes I have seen
the highest possible bliss
feverish lucidity
a joy so complete

It is in his direful acts
he prized nectar from the gods
he washed in ichor endorphines
Orgasmic flood

congratulations
through sodden holes he has dug
in torsos he has reached
a non corporeal state

for heavens sake alone
he carved a doorway
in the disemboweled
and found the righteous path

Incomprehensible
acts of cruelty
do not surmount
to a wish for death!

In all your travels
has it not occurred to you
that the fatal wound
Is but a consequence?

The will to live
ingrained in all
the abrasive shock
of flight or fight

Fears raw grip
around our stomachs
guides our nerve
we jolt and vomit

We like to think ourselves
ordained in hierarchy
that we self crown
and we bear down

Throwing our weight
the cudgel to and fro
so that everybody knows
where they reside

The woven sticks
bound with the fist
pendulum arm swings
and mesmerises

Chrononaut
deathless patron
whose eyes have seen
our cradle and grave

Yet missed the point
That life only has meaning
when fleeting?
It is the wealth of brevity

Yourself unhindered
Whose meandered path
Has served you endless splendour
Dare to judge us mere trifles?

I judge for I do not know
the graze of sunlight
intimacy of touch
I am but a husk!

I am jealous
pain could be a joyous thing
to that which cannot know
each tense and vital blow

The component of you
Who broods in singularities

With Galileo impetus
you watch inscrutable tides
to bask in stars ejecta
the gloss of lakes of mercury

And yet you crave this
orchestration of meat
that rots from genesis
until epiphanic death bed

I would gladly trade
to know your sight
trade your life
for my lack thereof?

It is an unfair trade
my meagre years
for your endlessness
Yet I am willing

Beneath my cowl hides
fields of Nero's ash
the snap of bone
I am sepulchral

You will inherit
the terrible barrenness
the anguish of unfeeling
a soporous value

Let me take your mask
unload this burden
For death is paralysis
and entropy

Unravel into me
and I into you,
for I now claim you
as my own