The Dilemma

I thought I’d left you

on the edge of forever,
panoptic, undefeated,
full of oats goats passed over.

Then the field-hands,

sent by the herd’s master,
slew, gutted & ate
any who could not escape.

This world is open for business,

as bloody, as innocent,
as any empty street.

I wink at the moon

& wonder what falling star
will exterminate the race
in time to avoid
the dissonant echo
which chimes with our disgrace.

We all fall into a past

we would have rejected.
if we could,
for a future silence
resurrected.

As if whales could fly.

As if stones could swim.
As if the eyes
in a peacock’s tail could see.
As if river ran back
to the mountain
where it began.