1. IMAGE OF CONTROL

Turn aside
Steady eyes belie the fear
Small hollow words, clatter to the ground
Broken
Ruin has come, not fire
Or in ashen rain
Only in turgid silence
Hanging, flayed
Submerged in presence summoned
It expands with breath, filling rooms
Welling up from the tar choked springs
Reeking black star, shining weary light
Bloodied eyes, no tears
Bloodied eyes, no light
Know not to what this moment's owed
Only slipping in shuddering dance
Towards cold, radiant dissolve


2. RIGID MAN

Behind closed doors
Lanterns sway in pulsing dark
Though the body's near
Rigid man with soiled hands
Cannot touch, cannot feel

Between walls in narrow cell
Glaring light extinguished
Cover, tender scalp exposed
Rigid man falls to summons, red
Drained and weak

Flaccid body, bent in muddied gutter
No truth unwrung from its marrow cold
Begs for mercy, for cleansing holy death
Only broken may it pass
Into golden dawn
Forgiven


3. CLUTCH OF OBLIVION

Sons, weep in mothers arms
To the breast are clinging
From that clutch, by fathers torn
And thrust into the bla-blazing fields
Cheeks still wet with cherubs tears

Across Earth, unscarred
Heavy blades are drawn
Gouges, fathoms deep
Well with blood

Father's seed, mother's seed
Seeds of war, seeds of lust
Tears of pain
Seem as joyous rapture
We claw, we point
At mutilated loins
Faces pushed into the soil
We are cleansed
We are cleansed
In the clutch of oblivion


4. BLACKOUT

Words of summons
Long since blown
Into dust, beyond memory
What remains
Sting of dirt in eyes
Clotted on wriggling tongue

Under bent cedar
Low branches hang
Silent witness
To birth spasms
Bristling beast
Burning hot breath
Odor of violence
Stammering wrath
Ceremony of terrible emergence
Known without lesson
(Knelt to pray)
Liberated in worship
Devout in practice
Delivering the sermon
To a subservient
Congregation of one
Submission, all must bend
Facade is broken


5. WILL TO REACH

In simple sermons it began:
"You are not yourself, you are me
There are only these words
And by them shall you live"
So forged was the mask of thousands
As child's face dissolves
Who so speaks shall name him
Who so calls will bring him
To his knees

I will dance for you
Behind the mask
Something small fiercely gleams
All that's needed to claim the light
Is the will to reach