The Ardor for Order

      Once I was happy just
      To flabbergast and gust
      Over incestuous Thanatos and Eros,
      My impulsive pair of heroes.
5     But now my erring mind
      (Arranging, jury-rigging jigsaws night by night)
      Surveys the surrounding social scene
      In meditative fright.
      The president imposes order,
10    The pope imposes hope;
      Which one has the right to expedite
      My sonnets with his ardor? 
      Every rhyme with law and order
      Is enticingly narcotic,
15    But to impose them on the Zeitgeist
      Is damnably neurotic.
      The windbag of a fascist
      Hoots and emotes in Life's emporium,
      His whistlework's that of the serious artist,
20    Envowelling society's consortium.
      His graves are all so neatly done
      They lie down in counted rows;
      The bones obey coordinates;
      Above, there blooms a rose.
25    I conceive a magic bag
      That holds us all together,
      Or perhaps simply the spurious
      Convention of "the weather."
      There's no God, or need be none
30    (Intrusive into our intimate "Scene A")
      Who's got to plod, or descend
      Deus ex machina.
      Draw instead in dreamy eye or fable
      Something constellationish
35    Shared with elbows tucked at table,
      A grace passed round or handed down,
      The substance of a wish.

 

From the collection "The Sword Inside"

Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]

More information available on gregglory.com.