I have been surreptitiously fed a
soporific for years, like Hamlet's old
man with a not-so-subtle drug, this cruel
tranquillizing poison poured into my
ears. No. I have been a participant,
much too willing, in the debasement of
my sensibilities. And now a bright
beam has at last penetrated the damned,
conciliatory clouds, and unless
I wish to submit to terminal shame,
I must seize this moment, retarded in
creativity, but I'll hear no more
the siren calls of lethargy, and I
shall rise. Have I been a blind fool in the
vibrant land of the sighted? Or have I
suffered occasional unwitting, mad
hallucinations, auspicious glimpses
of elevated consciousness in the
land of the sleepers? Or shall I once more
succumb and be another creeper, or
shall I stir, and go, go, go? Go on now.
I have climbed out of this last trap. I hear
those cursed voices fading away, fading
away; God, let them fade! Fifteen lost years in
the belly of a cosmic serpent. Let
me rise, ye gods, ye incarnate dream-fixed
figures. Let me light this Promethean
flame with a fire stick and bow, and blow this
false nether region of mundane forms to
Kingdom Come. Let's get the hell out of here!
20090826
Serpent's Belly
Copyright © 2009 Ernest Bloom.
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Wow, those verses are brimming with emotions. You feel so natural at times, as if I heard you speaking, improvising, on the spur of the moment. The artifice that blights such a great percentage of art is non-existent here.
ReplyDelete'Have I been a blind fool in the
vibrant land of the sighted?'
This reminded me of King Lear- a nice connection with the Hamletian theme in the beginning.
The vision of being trapped in the viscera of a serpent is a startling nightmare indeed. The penultimate stanza somehow reminded me of "I Have no mouth but I must scream" by Harlan Ellison- probably because the protagonists are also trapped in a belly- the belly of a super-computer.
"Like Hamlet's old man." LOL. Just the fact that you used the words 'old man' in a line about the Ghost makes you pretty awesome, E.B.
ReplyDelete"Go on now." Oh wow. The tone of this line is perfect. I can barely breathe.
"God, let them fade! Fifteen lost years in
the belly of a cosmic serpent." BRILLIANT! :D
the whale's gut, but tiamat works reasonably well, too.
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