Saul hated cats.

Saul hated cats, let the record show,
especially cats who were white as snow.
Saul was a small man, as his name states,
a man of petty thoughts, and also petty hates.
Saul heard a voice in the desert one day
as towards Damascus he made his way
to arrest some Jews, even though he had no warrant,
nor authority, nor leave, nor reason; so abhorrent
he found the Yeshuah movement that he would 
lay them by the heels before the court if but he could!

"Oh Saul" he heard a voice - 
he later thought it might be god -
"Why persecutest thou me?" 
followed by a flash of blinding light
(which his fellow travelers saw and heard,
or perhaps did not, depending)
which laid him out cold 
turning daytime into night,
his consciousness descending
into the void.
again, which may, 
or may not, 
have been observed
by all the others with him.
(depending on the story)
see acts or see epistles, 
"let us generate confusion"
thought the authors 
who wrote later,
neither omniscient 
nor omnipresent.
(but then, who is?)
Reconstructed dialog 
in the finest Roman fashion,
based on what they thought 
he might have said
lying on his back 
in that position.

Sigh....

Saul lay blind and deaf,
for three days? So they say.
perhaps more, or perhaps less,
what's it matter anyway?
And when he woke, 
he then and there informed 
all those who were about him
that Saul was henceforth 
to be known as Paul!
And my lord were they astounded!

Remember how old yhwh drove Josiah into madness
that whispering voice that talks and talks and talks till one with gladness
would do anything the voice commands for just one moment of silence
even transmute the ideas of a lord of peace into a religion of violence.

Aeon after aeon the pleroma and sofia
wandered through the trackless desert
beneath a heaven starless
seeking to undo 
(without Eldest knowing)
unreap an evil harvest,
undo an evil sowing.

Saul, he was a small man.

Humbaba

Humbaba,
he whose face is made 
of entrails
lord of death
father of decay
who dwells within
the forest of the hills
beyond the rivers
above the plain
who feasted on the bodies
of the drowned
when the rivers
driven mad by the god
of water and thunder
wind and rain
the waters above
and the waters below
known to some as Enlil
and to others 
by other names
overflowed their banks
drowned across the fields
dissolved the mud brick
houses of men
as if they were honey 
in boiling water
swept before them
rafted bodies 
in great piles
to rot under the sun
when the land dried
and the rivers 
returned to their courses
as if nothing whatsoever
had happened
leaving only
piles of bones.

the ravens, 
crows, 
vultures 
a festal day
the stench of sacrifice
rising to the heavens

Ut napishtim
Atra-hasis
who rode out the storm
warned by wise Enki
was granted immortality
whether in reward
or punishment
is hard to say.

There are many gods
some petty
some noble
some savage
like men
for men made the gods
in their image
as below
so above.

* * *

Don't look like nobody's home.

Door's unlocked.

Huh. That ain't good. Wonder if someone beat us here.

Phaugh! What is that smell!

Somethin very very dead. (pause) Ya can tie your handkerchief over yer nose an breath through yer mouth... but I never found it helps much. S'th reason most of th old school boys smoked cheap cigars. Nothin like a greasy 10 cent dago cheroot ta cover up the smell of a ripe one. (pause) you ain't gonna hurl on me are ya? You don't look so good.

No. I wouldn't want to contaminate a crime scene.

Yah, well,  you sure as hell wouldn't be the first one ta do it...

Maybe I will take up smoking.

Good idea.  Ya change yer mind, getcher ass outside or you'll never hear th' end of it.

Lights?

Lessee... nope, nothin, burned out, or powers off.  Owes ConEd some money maybe.

Maybe.

Police tape

- Whatta we got?

red bricked vertical the alleys mouth,

upon the point where She awaited,

stands now there a Knight .

yellow gold the pennant stretches

wind animate, the barrier gate.

- We got one young female, maybe early twenties, deceased.

One male, looks around thirty, ID says thirty two. He's still breathin, but he's out cold.

The EMT's are working on him.

- No ID on the female?

- Nah. Haven't found nothin. Nothin in her pockets, and no purse found.

- Look like a sexual assault?

- Nah. They both got all their cloths on. Shit, his fly is still zipped.

- Robbery? Drug deal gone south.

- Nah. No bullet holes we can see, no casings. No reports a gunshots.

That don't mean shit tho.

I ain't seen nothin like it before.

How long you been on the Force?

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years... Shit. Yeah that's right... yeah, I know you, ah...

And you never seen anything like it before?

Shit.

So how bad is it? Lots'a pieces or what?

Nah, it's not, it's not like that. That's not it.

Set on fire? Burned? Shit, I hate it when they're burned.

Nah, can't be burned, it'd smell, I'd smell it.

Can't have been dead long, that'd smell too.

No, nah, it's not like... ya gotta see for yourself

Then came there two men of law

Then came there two men of law

upright men, men of honor
who through a glass darkly

see what lies before them.


The elder wears world weary
the mask of one slow of thought
behind which blade sharp
his cutting mind watches


collects truths contained in lies
pieces fact from falsehood
from shattered shards and slivers
the trummern of frangible truths


descended though he knows it not
from the seventh son of a seventh son
of an emigrant from
The Isle of the Wise


Which lay unmapped of man
in a cold northern sea
where men and women wise
studied the paths of thought

Commanded as though by god
who speaking whispers their ear
disembodied his voice through
the air flying, fast as light


Calls, commands the time and place
where sun's light, warm shafted beams
fall upon forms one cold one still
deaths darkness brought to light


Nights concealing dark uncovering
shadows edge withdrawing slowly
the world spins the truths point
into the fragmented sight of men


The business of death the living
here undertake in documents
forms official, reports and writings
voices recording on chips of stone


The younger see with eyes
unjaundiced the framing form
of the corpses dis-eyed
before the rising light of day


can find them living
youth impatient fierce uncertain
where is the thread
to bind together


these shattered lives in pieces lying
cryptic on the ground before him
wonders when the wanderer
will show or if he has already

let the number sightless

in code A=A+1

increment go sub

where the file is not found

spy white the cat

who sits silent waiting

calling the other from 

the city of dark shadows

from the bridge the city spanning

beneath the umber changeless sky

where they speak 

the two who watch

called to the place of deaths dark dealing

where weights the corpse

by gravity pulled downward

into earths ancient arms enfolding

Come, sweet death, come, blessed rest! Come lead me to peace for I am weary of the world, O come! I wait for you, come soon and lead me, close my eyes.

Come, sweet death, come blessed rest! It is better in heaven, for there is all pleasure greater, therefore I am at all times prepared to say "Farewell," I close my eyes.

Sonnet 9

their candles burn, their lights, their wicks aflame
uphold the world from end to end with light,
eternal being of eternal name
illuming fire against consuming night.
the righteous gainst nights dragon hold the gate
whose all consuming dark seeks to destroy
the strength of love against the power of hate
that pleasure in pain trump not the pain in joy.
the ten who burn forever as the righteous
though they gutter in the wind which moves the sea
cannot by the evil be extinguished
before they find the twelve to set them free.
must time begin to set it all in motion
so wind move waves upon nights endless ocean.

Obliquity

Now without the hall wherein is Eldest sleeping

Shield walled safe with sharpened weapons waiting

there stand still three figures silent watching

hot embers into nights black barrow climbing

as great golden bees sweet evenings honey hunting

through the night sky dark wherein the bright stars flower
children of Sofia who strives against the darkness

Mantles the She eagle golden eyed sharp talon footed 

human footed now in human semblance seeming

fierce the woman tall with a warriors bearing 

keeper of the secret that the seekers seeking

who now beside her stand her close company keeping

the seer and the priest who seek that beyond seeing

she cries aloud to thought and to memory fleeting

who sit upon the throne above where Eldest sleeping

dreams a dream of darkness an eternal night unending

the ruined city cold and broken beyond mending

spanned now side to side by hewn stone bridge cold burning
as the swords of heroes beneath the mountain snow

The many oared longship that in the dream sea foundered
lies now before the sealed gate of the great hall waiting
that ship which bore a soul death upon the nightmare current
lies shattered on the ground beneath the climbing embers
which cast their light like wingbeats warm on a still form lying
upon a catafalque of many forms engraven
in oaken knots entwined no beginning nor no ending
unbroken both the bearer and the bearers bearing
the three stand watching there her still form silent lying
winged darker than the starless night Thought and Memory flying
through the open smoking eye above the fire burning
night air warmed by nights fire by night wings moves upon her
ember bees descending soft now brighten sockets empty 
eyeless eyes awaken no longer soul death lidded

and
 
she

breathes