Slaves of Glory

      The very astonishing hour has come.
      The very astonishing hour indeed!
      Green Heinekens, jade brain and rose-coral vodkas
      --Exhausted! In one final, fantastic evening.
5     Hosannahs invade the empty windows,
         spurs of blacks, mysterious
      As the tender invitation of the body.
                          Bright, alcoholic after-haloes sift
                          Timid ash upon stale, upraised lips.
10                        Sobriety has entered us
                          As mourners enter a white church.
      Enough of this pathetic quietness!
      This simpering, dog-like wish for 'temperament,'
      The madness of faces full of 'sound judgment.'
15    I forgive all disasters, all accomplishments,
      Every disguise that announces 'I am finished!'
      Choking its inhabitant as a mirror chokes beauty.
      Songs of sporadic intensity, wicked verses,
      The poem of flayed skin, blind eyesight,
20    Mutes imagining laughter, I forgive you!
                          Pathetic quiet!
                          Bring tympans, wild sibilants,
                          Drunken elephants of sound, mists,
                               the harsh clangour of brass.
25    New eyes, new hearts, new senses!
      Bring a speech of bloods, the invention of Angels!
      Why was one ever afraid of waking?
      Eh! a little daydream I had in the haypile.
      But now the new era has arrived --this moment!--
30    Let us revenge the sky for an hour!
      Let us run out, muds of new births upon us,
      And seize in hands of ice the very flowing  waters----
      Dreams of incorporeal perfection!
      Dawn-leaves splinter in my eye
35    Enacting the death of Satan.
      Vertigineousness in the closet!
      Very astonishing!

 

From the collection "Ascent"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.