canto 69. sailing the all-liquid road

the all-things; building a ship; top nut tells a story

the advice of minerva being,
a 50–50 bet, at best, or cheating,
jericho was ambivalent, at first,
but however drunk and absurd,
it was good as time as any then,
to follow what’s available when,
later, sour, and still hung-over,
she’ll take it out upon some poser — 
minerva’s a fair, reliable source 
(until the next time she get sore,
loses a war, or at some game,
or artemis takes eventual revenge,
or zeus does something intentionally mean,
or grass grows up, or anything — 
gods can be monumentally fickle),
so jericho decided to map the riddle

the all-liquid road, on the all-purple path,
inside the all-jungle jungle, all-vast,
a rectangle on the map on the all-round earth,
in the all-spiral arm of the all-swirl swirl,
one of the many in the all-everything all

plunging, then, deep in jungle,
overrun, as it was, with weeds and fungus,
dark, mysterious, hot and sticky,
a load of insects, infecting thickly — 
other than that, an inviting place,
filled with opportunities and explains — 
the all-road liquid, as indicated,
was much less a road than fluid,
a river along the lines of nile — 
the best possible road available via — 
the problem was, to travel across,
the cormorant, decommissioned, ages ago,
hidden under rocks, wasn’t around,
and, given that swimming wasn’t allowed,
resolved here on the banks they should stay,
build another, called cormorant again

to keep spirits from getting fished,
top nut another story together stitched