we new
not knew
we who
no never
knew we
never even
saw it when
we were there
when we were there
we weren’t there
we were gone
gone as we
are now
o why inside
us is there a damn ape
 

across the faces faces cross
the worst the best cross faces
don’t cross cross out
cross back across the city crossing
death losing face
lost cross
the last scapegoat
dreams escaping
then reclaimed
through the shakes
in the surf curling
the purest bluegreen
waves ever to wash
the dreams resurface
comeback  biteback
take us back
to the fence
to the raggediest old oak
you’ve ever witnessed
a line of carcasses hung
on crosses lining
Sparticus’ road to freedom
 
 
 

every ordinary life
has extraordinary times
but this isn’t it
it’s never
this one
the one
you recognize
once then gone
in your own
sad time and way
in your own slow draw
of the bow

o the turning inside
the wheeling mind
a wheel and a well
endless, bottomless
intricate and magic
a perfect shield against
the crap monkeys fling
sticking us to the wall

entranced at the entrance
of the thing we sought, we thought
we believed in and then lost all
in just a moment that was
the Castle Besieged, seized, razed,
uprooted like weeds and vines
of the earth that is here,
the castle that is gone,
only fields left,
with minds

scattered like city lights
yet diffuse as the fog
filling in the spine
in the story
of the song
longing
in the spine
locked in
a column
whispering

still there
hovering
in the night
just outside
the door glowing
just outside
my aching
ear