DREAMSNAKE

What do u need to hear right now?

Nothing? That’s a shame.

It makes these words excessive,

like the annoying relative who describes everything beautiful

in a torrent of mindless words

while scarcely ever stopping to actually take it in — absorb it — like some elixir prepared by a God who prefers to remain anonymous —

and can you blame them?

They are bound to receive a lot of lengthy complaints

about the construction of existence!

Who was it?

Own up!

A cowboy builder who stumbled on the gemstones

of infinite manifestation?

The schoolgirl in the kitchen

who opened the tome of imaginal poiesis

when she looked at the whitewashed wall

and painted it with golden koi

without moving a single muscle

but her heart?

Was it you

in a careless moment of ignorance?

Dreaming it all in from the void in a flash and the moment u realised it was far too late —

Was it I? In a cruel poetic joke?

Tapping away for a prank and seconds later wrestling with the typewriter

to stop the flood of universes spilling out in sheets like rain

and soaking the silence

in worlds upon worlds upon worlds —

Whoever it was, the task is clear : we’ve got to clean up this mess!

You there! Grab this broom and head for the galactic centre

— try and clean up the singularity lurking with a cackling spiral grin

and pulling us all in aching revolutions

around and around and around —

I’ll go for the heart stream — try to damn it up with sandbags —

Send your sisters to the cortex with dynamite and tryptamines

to dissipate the brittle girders

of personality architecture —

(As the ecosystems pack up and leave

we receive that the message the desert is ready

for imaginative self-destruction

— “We await your applications for oasis design

with the eager hearts of ancient pastors —

Friends of the Decaying Worlds —

Call us!”)

Don’t get distracted, dreamsnake!

Send your study-hungry soul to the feet of the masters

and the mothers of the dragon deities

who anticipate the arrival

of a sodden fragmented starling

on the steps of their mountain home

in exactly three

two

one