icarus stanzas, or the demise of the formula

BOOK IV
THE DIFFERENCE IN ELECTRIC LIGHT

icarus stanzas, or the demise of the formula
(ep "zunda water," A-side)


49

you thought reality would love you
you thought causality would take your side
you thought choosing was a sign of the Major League
you thought you were normal by all the criteria of givenness
but the cold and the wind, the cold and the wind
will dispel your expectations

you thought a dream wouldn't predict your death
you thought that taking pills for weeks was also the way of the samurai
you thought you'd get better sooner if you took medicine.
thought your father wouldn't find out about anything behind the Wall,
                behind the door to his room
but the cold and the wind, the cold and the wind
will give you drowning in a sea of blue

did you really think that one day it would go away
really thought that you wouldn't be betrayed
really thought that poetry would beat prose
really thought that Nature would yield to Chaos
but time and a set of numbers in a line, time and a set of numbers in a code
it's all been decided for you, Bedouin


50

everything we remember and know
Fear of Death
all we have left
Shadow of Hiroshima

when faced with a borderline situation
you will see Awe
means
you've already
lost

you've been ambushed
surrender your forts and treasure maps
put away your guns, come out with your hands up
like the millions before you sung by Leonard Cohen

Abolished and Shattered
Chewed up, Digested
we'll all be put on toast of fortifications
buttered up by the Hills of the Dead

all that we remember and know
Fear of Death
all we have left
the Awe in our blood

when faced with a ticking meteorite
you see the metaphysical Trenches
it means
you're already
entering the Great Game of Atomicity


51

what do we need barren land for?
deserts and soil without fertilizer
her with her thoughts, her flesh

EVERY HEART IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR A TOWER

I'm afraid the city is not illuminated, it just
pretends that the darkness within it
exists apart from the inhabitants and their personal spaces

EACH ONE WHO GOES BEYOND MUST PAY WITH HIS MEMORY

sealed wagons, ruin and famine as the philosopher's best companions
the marble and the throat cut open by the string of the cipharas,
                as the best definition of poetry
a country that has lost all its children

THE MOLOCH DEMANDS YOUR NAKED EXCUSES


52

until there's a knock at the door
I'm trying to put all the epistemes, all the numbers
all the epistemes, all the numbers, all the practices
to reveal, to identify
moving into the sunset

but so far all that comes out are pathetic brackets
in the square of my closeness
it's just another form of escapism
it is another form of evocation
Another Revolution

but there seems to be someone standing on the doorstep
I can feel the powder, I can feel it in the back of my head
I wipe away all the scribbles I've made
before telling the sky about my accomplishments
how we're being bugged by the Spinal Tap Pigeons
how we're being ruined by the Tyranny of Presence
as we all stand on the parade ground facing the Wall
as we all turn our voices to the Abyss
as...

shouting and firing, a punch in the gut
the board takes on a new, foreign color
all my formulas are drenched with paint
Ratio

I'm led to hell, through the florets of prisons
they put me on a chair with a bag of gunpowder on my head
"what have you to say for yourself?"
I'm Free because I don't regret a thing

si-len-ce