Two Views of Night

Night View I

I
torn by the promise
declaim to the winds:
Bear me forth
Up to mountains
Where peaks are as raindrops
(clean, unspottled
and not without sadness
unto the fourth generation).

Mark my words, law
is a law
unto itself
and life not much more than an echo.

Why do you wait, and for whom? ……

I
Understood
(once — eons past)
forces:
pushing
inter ac tion s s
BUT
now ho hum well what can I say save
save me lord god yes for I am not yet
of the winds
myself
and want to rest tonight,
lest I lose tomorrow.


Night View II

I
(slit by the claw)
Dug my nails into flesh
and shredded the beast
down to his tendons,
reveling midst blood
of martyred ideas.

I
am sick
in my way
(as who is not)
these days things being what they are and all
that.

I
laughed a bit
(why not, may I ask?)
and scorned tears of death
‘neath thin sheets at night
And fell asleep with fear.

I
know a thing
very worthwhile:
you act it
and feel it
but cannot believe it
inside…..