After Reading the Master, I Stay Inside
by Tim Mayo


 

If the divine has lost its capital D,

                                                       who cares? 

                                                                          There is something else

about belief

                      that goes beyond it,

                                                        curls squirmy and warm,

forms a loving snake deep in my intestines

                                                                   and still consumes. 


 

The page I type this poem on has no substance. 

                                                                          It hangs

like a square moon I click up

                                               onto a blue screen. 

So when the invisible turbulence

                                                   blows through the trees outside,

sending the green fetters of their limbs

                                                             flurrying through the real,

will this screen shake? 

                                     My vision of poetry blur? 

                                                                              Will

this moon tumble down,

                                        turn trapezoid––its angles no longer

right? 

 
 

I dream of Chinese lanterns I will never see,

                                                                     their red

opaque glow signifying ancient mysteries,

                                                                     each paper form

hiding its precarious fire,

                                          and beneath them all,

                                                                               a shadow mimes a song.

Its dark, drunken arms gesticulate

                                                      all the melodious vowels to words

I have yet to form. 

  
 

                                         I purse my lips like a small silver coin, but they emit

 neither song nor whistle. 

                                            There is no Emperor to keep awake.