Joy of Man's Desiring

Archon

All of the women deep

in the Gloom dream

each other from toddler

to crone while they tally 

each others' deaths whether

from childbirth or beating.

"I've asked you to leave me:

     I mourned you! I want

you to stop! How much sorrow

must I bear for those seraphim 

     whose will was surmounted

by teleology," Gabe says. "My fault,

     while I live, you die.

Death becomes you. All of you."

     Dressed in shifts not

shrouds, they bend away

from Gabe as he glares at them.

     "But little angel," they say,

"whose worm genders death

alongside life —you believe

     we can escape our fate?

Think binding women ranks

with Abel's husbandry? As if

men were beholden to none

     but gods? Your grasp will

          never be enough."

Enoch 

I wrote a book    as my friends did, 

          But I guess    they revised 

Or something be    cause our views 

          Don't exactly    coincide, 

     So that's another    reason why 

I'm in Thebes. And be    sides, it's hard 

Finding someone who    can take 

Dictation nowadays:    merchants 

     And their guilds    used to be 

Ubiquitous until    priests took over.

End of All Flesh

To our patron who spoiled 

          Us with wine:

We're allowed, once again, to smell, 

To hear the Garden in the West.

Gabriel, home bound 

                         Because of gout, 

Who spoiled us with sofas

Couched like coon cats 

     Chonky underneath the noon sun

Meowing mindfully for our nip. 

               Man, grown inside one throat, 

From dust, exploding through nose, ears.

"Damn! If you're awake, read the first

Few chapters…it will fuck you up!" 

It's not instinct, or bloodthirst, 

       Or what? Or something worse.

"Adam blames Eve; she blames 

A talking snake; Nobodaddy deals."

     Blue eyes cryin' rain in the rain

O these girls won't let me be me

"Then Cain's a vegan whose offerings 

Get no love. Abel's roasted lamb does!"

Mentality of strike first, whether or not

     You know your opponent.

"Cain can't kill the Critic, so he buries 

The competition beneath his orchard." 

          Like, don't overthink it     attack.

"Tellin' you, Gabe, giants were born."

Upon time future passed

                    Dedicated punishment.

"Our Sinner-in-Chief is so pissed off!

He loves some first person plurality!"

          As in here we go

"Genesis Maker then flips out over His 

Crappy creation, basically scuttles it all."

          Open with Najdorf or Grünfeld?

Every family has to give one to the faith.

"Everybody He just spent time naming,

Dead: He's best at naming the dead."  

Then they lost their homes in the flood.

But saving some creeping things,

Purplish ferns with fuzzy tentacles,

     Stumpy cacti with soft fuzz

"Elaborate planning based upon

          Cubits and counting."

                    Those who get no love:

"He does counting as well as naming."

Two Enochs, neither saved.

          One Enos, also drowned.

"Still, those names are all under water, 

With Lamech, his wives, and children."

      How Shem's thistles must

     Grow from inside a dove's throat, 

Exploding from nose and ears.

We're allowed, once again, to smell, 

     To hear the Garden to the West.

Two Legs

When man loves Lilith, he knows

différence. Taller, leaner, head high,

she never bows to him who can

only crouch. She's not first of her

kind, nor last, as long as litters

thrive. She sways others. Their nods

match her waves and she swells.

Coddling, he cuddles her belly —she

cradles him. He pampers her well.

Also all hands only help: His old pal,

one night, tries to take her, but her

yowl wakes everyone.

Sophia 

     I have found a woman

More bitter than death,

     Who is the hunter's snare,

And her heart is a net,

     And her hands are bands.

He that pleaseth God

     Shall escape from her:

But he that is a sinner,

     Shall be caught by her.

Fable of the Place

On the western side of earth,

Other humans there     like sapien

In Eden     —western earth where

Root of tree exposed, when wet,

     Looks like a snake, but serpent,

A god's midwife     —before gods'

     Judgement     —doesn't have to 

Crawl on its belly     —it has wings. 

Sophia, now pregnant with Eve,

     Inspects her Tree of Knowledge:

Serpent, why are you on the ground 

          Instead of in your tree?

Branch like suckers from roots grow,

     And special furless creatures.

     Lilith     —her Tree of Life makes her

Pregnant as well     —so god rejects her,

     "Garden strictly for god." 

          Then Lilith tricks Eve 

And other sparkling entities, 

So god takes Sophia to be his wife, 

          But Sophia rejects him 

Because of his judgement on her 

Serpent and on Eve     —because god 

     Rocks out on concupiscence.     

Serpents

As children, our father told us, Don't

Be Aimless —wandering at night

Was forbidden because, mansions—

He'd forgotten to number them, 

Forgot who occupied them, whether

Hittite or Thracian or what —most

Likely alligators and vampires.

Lavender, lilies waved from window

Boxes on my hall —my home, a box

In an arcade —neighbors told me it

Was an abandoned Florida mall

Amongst skinny pines and Spanish 

Bayonets —no natives around, I 

Knew they'd call me snowbird 

If I met any —on TV the Publix 

Theme tolled and a train crossed 

The St Johns River —turned out

Mansions were men whom our

Father shunned for burying their

Talents —our father prepared places

Here, and our job was to draw men

Out so they would unveil their caches.

I would fold myself into their 

Cupboards with my sisters,

Tongues flickering, waiting for maps,

For the shunned men to unzip minds.

Lilith 

     Reports of my passing continue.

Green leaves and sparse threads 

Conspire as lateen sails—

Dhow taut with tarred lapboard,

Crew of two who watch me shimmer

While I hoist a few tilapia 

With my hands or such —fish leap

To me like puppies eager to

Greet me —I am always recognized 

And never forgotten —Alexandria 

Swept me up from some clouds

That would have obscured me,

But I relented and allowed my

Form to fill out a bit as I resettled

Myself along the Nile, then selected

These fellows to accompany me

Onto the near shore where I created

A filmy repro of a lighthouse lit 

By some of my cousins, the jinn.

Nighttime hides every intention 

Crucial for my passion to hear, 

To smell the boys and the girls

Who gather wherever lyrics and wine

Coalesce —no stile against this embank

Ment, against the saltworks, beach

A bit farther along lends me firm

Entry while my wispy tentacles 

Strengthen into limbs and my hair

Gets a little looser, less snakey—

Space of the Fable

Was west, West? Or East, west of Eden, 

An undiscovered hemisphere Lilith 

     Preferred rather than being here, 

Reminiscing about free will or entropy?

Will she recall the compass? 

      Use it again when our world turns

Down, up, when the Nile flows south

     Or the Indus flows north?

Tigris, north? Will we see Polaris, south

     When the needle points south?

     She writes N because she draws

     North even as we draw south

     To watch those white clouds affixed

To sticks billowing into Provincetown.

Luzbel

Bone and bone are you.

Because you are human,

No human can be stranger.

     Your inner life, just as

Canny to each as to all,

Yet you are infernal

To each.

               More, you act

     Upon others as if you

Know that others know

     You act.

               Because all

Sapien share

          This one abandon,

You can either rejoice

In this

          Other's pain or weep

               Out that pain.

You join abba, in ecstasis,

And not in dialectics

     Alone.

Fraction 

If Cupid was given wings, was it not to flitter? Man invites Lilith to the Palace. "In the ballroom they dance on firecrackers." Photos don't due them. They do them in. Around the tables: Baby monitors. Playpens. Big Cubes. Medicine Balls. Baby carriages. Voting booths minus machines. Memecoin Posters. Sale prices! "Does that seem right to y'all?" Luzbel: Pure Soul Awakens —Relife relived as the ancients. Peers of the peers. Please Carry The Kissing Bugs To Your Local Kissing Bug Repository. Just. Like. That. In love then out. "Y'all, has Palace stopped cutting deals with foreign governments to harvest organs from detainees?" Man's got those wrought iron fences all around, and now some damn concrete, too. AI portraits of all the presidents life-size and framed amongst pilasters: Red saturation to them all: GW feverish. TJ bleeding into his wig. AL's top hat volcano. Bowls of M&Ms on side tables. "Have any of y'all actually seen M&Ms being made? How'd they get those colors to adhere? How'd they autograph each one?" Not playing Handel cuz too kingly kind of stuff. Cueing YMCA for the unwashed instead. "What a fucking thing to say!" Lilith's invited to the man's dacha. "Like Renoir edited Gregor's footage, man. He cut her scenes." Just. Like. That. In love then out. Pines so green. Rose gables. Ivy crawling. Corvettes and Chargers and Mustangs. "Man's rented a Lambo from my cuz." Toby eyes her braless. Teeter chokes on shad. Felix catches glances. Coronets et cetera. A turkey shoot. Film screening. Break Out Of The Crazy House! Lilith becomes a forest outlaw. She has always been a freedom fighter. Now she wears the flag. Heron bow to her. "Y'all didn't turn this into class warfare." The class did. Kindergarten punched her in the belly. Luzbel: Sich Durch Den Äther Bewegen —Newsmax: All Souls Mass as video of past communions with ruling rulers. No Bishops. Just. Like. That. In love then out. Can't trust the man especially when he's erect —decisions decisions. 

Sophia's Hair

Miming as a dowager full of wisdom,

Lilith with her womanly diligence

Struck Luzbel, first —sheared

His locks —rape of locks —You dare.

Like Samson, strength blossomed

     Along with my tresses. My virtue

Rose with these white clouds draped

Around my shoulders, medium like.

Then my hair fell out after I was caught

     With Luzbel! My fellows quarreled

As my power curled roots —You dare.

Roots out. Curls dropped. Power went.

     Only now have I learned to rest easy

     With my absent hair: filaments all.

Babylon 

Sword upon    her treasures:

     They shall    be made a spoil.

Drought upon    her waters:

     They shall    be dried up:

Because it is    a land of idols.

     They glory    in monstrous

Things. There    fore shall dragons

     Dwell there    with the fig fauns:

Ostriches shall     dwell therein.

It shall be no    more inhabited

Ever— till she    treasure others

     Rather than    others' treasure.

Sleepwalk

Then the third     plague fell,

     fell upon     our people

     because we     would not

release Lilith     from bondage.

Our children     slept well, well

before this plague. But then boys,

boys and girls awoke in neighbors'

homes, all     unaware, confused.

Days later, wives and husbands 

     began to awake     in cities

     on the coast.     Some awoke

in other     beds beside, beside 

strangers,     all     unaware,

confused.     And this     plague 

     lasted     only     forty days

     while     Lilith     slept.

Then the fourth     plague fell,

     fell upon     our people

     because we     would not

release Lilith     from bondage.

From Dystopia How-To 

"I do not have any idea what's going on."

The same road goes both up and down.

The beginning of a circle is also its end.

Not I, but the world says it: all is one.

And yet everything comes in season.

Hard to decipher the relationships

among the Dark Lord's disciples—

Some, like Lilith, stayed with the old ways,

while peasants wrote a new liturgy:

"Lilith, we are poor men who can't

possibly satisfy you."

     (priests burst out laughing)

Lilith: "Yet how valiant you are! I don't

want your seed. I want a couple of your

kidneys for our Dark Lord."

     "Sorry. Our Dark Lord's maladies?"

Lilith: "Many. He's wanting an extra kidney

or two —just to cover his ass."

      Lilith was given the ears of an ass

after dissing a Rap Battle…

"Nothing is true, and all is allowed.

     Blesséd be her name."

Do not bother to pray silently, but always

thank our leaders.

"If I kill you, will you please shut up?"

Wonder what people got up

          to back when?

Thumb pianos and penny whistles seem

the most popular… For those who use

thumbs or pennies.

     VO: "Keto, not Keno. Keto."

You're not fasting… You just can't find

anything you want to eat…

In times of dearth, despair.

In times of girth, jellyroll.

Hatchway must be secure before

lining up for chow.

Spoons only return for deposit 6¢

Salt packets 2 per table (Good luck!)

Metallic flavors become cheerier

when you add peppermint!

The Ask: Please finish eating within

10 days once opened.

Q: How many ration chits will I need?

A: How many elderly will you have?

          Plan accordingly.

Pages pieces

slips post-its newspapers

bags blowing through branches

twigs stirring the leaves

dry heat no less

hot but empty

arid metallic

tastes —lips 

Establishing shot: Cumberland Farms

          Keto: day to day…

(To the last syllable of recorded time)

All our yesterdays have lighted fools

the way to dusty death…

There's an unexpected item

in the baggage area…

Q: How many chocolate chips will

I need?

A: How many kids will you have?

          Plan accordingly.

Locusts return, —your bellies will be

full.

Dust storms return, —your bellies

will be full.

When gullies run dry, you die.

Even the worst can-opener cannot fail

to open empty cans.

"I'm waiting for a snake to come

waltzing through my dining room!"

     Are you the city mouse or the country

mouse?

One might wander between fangs…

Biometrics, we love biometrics.

     Biometrics, we're your family!

After mice drink raw H5N1 milk, bird

flu virus riddles their organs…

Used to be able to sleep

while listening to NPR… Can't do

that anymore.

     VO: "Keno, not Keto. Keno."

Urgent Care, go go go go go go go go!

Lilith: "Louisiana descends into dystopia

with historic law on abortion pills."

Nurses wear light-colored gowns…

Priests should probably wear white…

     But you do you.

Symptoms like syncope and incontinence

are your friends.

     Doctors, not so much.

Q: How many ID chips will I need?

A: How many comrades will you have?

          Plan accordingly. 

(though secrets shared can still be hid)

Be synchronous

(if you can)

or counterbalance as though you have

whole complete inner ears,

bones, the whole bit…

and some climbs

are too important

to not summit —

Cheers!

Try again later or select

     a different time period.

WRIT: All subjects must report:

Paladin will 4D mental shift subjects

to accommodate proto-Julian time.

Loyce Pace, in public health, recognizes

that another pandemic really could be

around the corner…

Lilith: "Wow, so negative and lazy, I'll

prove you wrong!"

Depends™ figure prominently in

your ☣️ future…

          {Dark Lord:

               "Kidneys? Kidneys?

                Bring Me the Head

                of Abrego Garcia!"

          }

     Set a check-in timer whenever she

needs an extra layer of safety like

when walking alone at night. If you

can't confirm her safety, when the timer

ends, safety check will start emergency

sharing…

"Now, go home!

     "And keep order at home!

"Go home! Keep order at home!"

Gabriel

 

This mystery has no solution,

Hence films or transcripts

Will not capture ours.

 

Soul winks at being,

Glides from the Otzar:

“We can save the world,

Our oyster,” says Gabriel.

“And they’re aphrodisiacs!”

Venus on the half-shell spooked

Savonarola. Even the spiritus

Mundi fractured became whole

When confronted by the chirps

Of pearl infested mollusks.

Those desert oysters elude even

The most dedicated hermits.

“How great is that?”

How strange: love holds defeat:

How we embrace a penalty

Kick gone wild. How we

Splay before a striker, then

Scatter like sparrows.