Miro Lac-du-Manse - Mimesis

[Erudiche]

Sailing on Sand
Turning ceaselessly and ceaselessly,
For a thousand hundred years,
Yet we will never touch the sides.
One day I shall open you,
And I shall enjoy
An aged and sweet wine.

We were not so close,
Dear viper,
Yet the venom stings,
None the less.
The unknown quantity,
Ever unknown,
Yet the parts broken shall be mended,
Anastrophe takes hold,
You will be solved, in time.

I speak plainly, ever plainly:
History is completed,
And what seems to turn one way,
In fact turns the other.
I invoke you,
O Blessed Mantorok,
Let us sail the sea of sand,
Casting waves and dunes,
Let us enjoy the summer
Upon ancient seabed.
Sailing blistered and blind shores,
Eyeless and delighting,
Through our bleached and brutal paradise,
And through gateways of slumber.

I will take care of you, my dear.
My poor, foolish dear.

[Erudiche]

Ashley
Finally,
You've flown.

[Erudiche]

Razor's Web
We are so much alike,
You and I.

As we stood atop the entire world,
And the sky circled about us,
And the stars fell like garland,
Like crowns,
With inexorable order,
I felt for once in this great voyage,
Twisting,
Bending,
Bristling,
Bleeding,
From edge to edge,
Point to point,
Through a labyrinth of glass.
Oh, but a babe you were,
Raised by ragged hands.

You saw it, clearly.
For what it was.
Oh, but how blind you had become --
Who leaves their child in the sun?
Greedy maws devour potentialities,
Like dying stars,
And all of space and time echo,
Like vacant tombs.

In your madness,
Did you at least gain a glimpse?
As you flew,
Loosed,
And pierced the clouds,
Did you pierce the world, Ashley?
Did you pierce its heart?
Did you pierce its brain?
Did you pierce its soul?
Did you strike it dead, Ashley,
With great finality?
Did you strike against it,
And will it now,
Shuddering and stomping,
Bellowing and gnashing its hideous fangs,
Will it now bleed to death?

And what of the vermin, Ashley,
What of them? What of their fate?
Their feast?
Their derision?
Does no one understand?
Does no one mourn?
Does no one weep?

I shall not,
For I have long since dried my tears,
I open my veins for you,
I open my gall for you,
This world which we have seen together,
I shall bequeath due justice upon.

All which divides and distinguishes,
Ashley,
Which has cut apart soul from soul and mind from mind,
And torments us endlessly at the very boundaries of existence --

This perdition I shall destroy.

[Erudiche]

Ode to Nightshade
O Nightshade,
Most beautious and bounteous of flowers,
With many forms and many shapes here and there,
With many faces and many names uttered from sea to sea,
You, who have stolen the flesh of the flayed sky,
You, who we see in our most deepest of dreams,
And reflected in the ripples of the surface,
As we stand upon the shore,
Ankle deep in the sand and shoals,
Amid the breathless coming and going of sea foam.

I have grown you in white houses,
And upon the terraces alight with the sunrise.
We have seen the silent flame,
We have seen the city rise.
I have tended you so gently,
And yet did not forestall your demise.

There is no Garden which survives forever,
And so we are burdened with regret,
You are poison, O Nightshade, beautiful woman.
But we are murderers.

Let us plant a seed into the ground.
Let us see what pearl might hatch.
And when we do so,
Let us see the strings drawn taut,
Which wrap about our fingers,
So that we do not forget,
Who is puppet,
And who is puppet-master.

[Erudiche]

The Puppets Have Fallen Limp
I remember a time where I would play with my dolls.
I would steal them from my sisters.
I would dangle them upon strings.
I would build them houses,
Upon the sand of the shore,
And have them live in peace and war.

There was a time I grew too old for my dolls,
Yet I played undissuaded,
And in my loneliness upon the great white tower,
Vapored desperate secret pleas,
That the dolls should move there without me,
And with each movement I recall,
Over every moment a pall,
Frustration mounting and desperate to provoke,
What can be described only as a miracle,
I took then the blade of a knife,
And cut their feeble threads of life.


They
tumbled

down




down






down








and when they landed,

no one caught them.

I wept.

This is when I learned of death.