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Monday, June 24, 2024

An ill-omened book

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 An ill-omened book

The deckled edges of the book  

from whence you had just taken a look 

a grimoire of antiquity 

painstaking iniquity  

emblazoned on every page,  

a most dishonoured book 

settling into someone’s neurons 

and the delicate propinquity 

of the possibility of oppositional 

readings of the chef of horrors who cooks 

insurance claims, books,

and the sickled-sins-of-the-father;

a storehouse of horrors 

hiding in the larder, beside the bother- 

some kidney beans, pressing against the can 

of peas and corn, granola bars; a vial of sand 

beside the basil oil, resting all over the land 

beyond the back wall stove stand 

tall and firm among the cloven hooves in quicksand 

 

Down in the silo 

the grains jostle, and a rat snake  

seeks the mice therein  

attracted by the sandy wheat 

piled many times the height of a tall man 

out the stray grains to sweep 

and use all the fruitilities of the hand 

back home on crazy street, the heat-lamps 

warm hot dogs and sausage, 

the smell of meat assaults the sand-wich 

a wasp of a witch, a which way to go situation 

the cross-roads of the hostile takeover of creation 

the ointment rubbed on the broomstick 

An unguent of the ages 

A tool of the sages, absorbed through  

a mucus membrane

hallucinations forthwith, henbane 

belladonna, a full moon on all hallows eve, 

hemlock potluck, liberty cap mushrooms,  

the sensation of shape-shifting  

at the time of the lunar eclipse, drifting 

on a wave of doom as soon 

as the gloom lifted, a mist swiftly 

enveloped the clearing,  

feeling like you’re flying above your body,  

then an electricity-like transmission 

of the self through time-space 

wearing the black cap of the were-cat 

graymalkin, jumpinjehosephat  

appear capped in the cemetary  

that doubles as an arboretum, carry 

the alms in a blanket made of elk-skin 

parchment with skeltonics, burnt around the edges 

sedges under siege from the flames 

miles away the earth shakes mildly, 

as powerful spirits are conjured, wildly 

dancing in a circle with shadows running long 

from the campfire, rehearsed well and singing songs 

listening to the profundities  

of a different era read aloud  


 


 

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