PLAGUE IV

PLAGUE IV I make scapulars and write spells while those who are lost mark time in the temple of words, I chant elegies from the rooftops into the dark, paint blood on the lintel so death will pass over. I’m telling you, recite the names of God, don’t waste time cursing the plague, the world is on fire with pain tonight, and the sleet and rain can’t stop the burning. dispel the anarchy of the heart, while you still have time. I plead with you, invent a new world, poets and lovers, word-makers everywhere, expel the plague gods from our cities, they still strike terror with every footfall.

I fill my canvases with blood and soot, place them in the windows to ward off the hungry beast I turn my face towards the Salish Sea, forgive the dead by pure waters, meanwhile in the temple of language the lexicologist comes undone, opens his mouth and begins to speak in tongues, puts a spell on the world, brings healing to the city of Babel I was a snake, shedding my skin by night, and by day I entered the holy of holies giving birth to new words, I made drawings and wrote spells on stones, for the lonely old women and men to hold next to their skin, ‘words are animals’ said Jung, but today they are fire. the city of reason no longer exists, the shifting portals clock in the hours, waiting for the poets to sew up the hole in the world. let’s forget animosities and cruel words, let’s recite our poems in the dark again, drink wine, chase the sound of laughter and wild songs, poet, whisper your poems in my ear, sigh your best sigh against my throat, and love, let’s not speak of it, just trust the heart, that beast will make its own way through the storm.