and our blood will melt iron

by normal

“ – – – and our blood will melt iron
and our breath will melt steel
we shall stare face to face with naked eyes
and our tears will make earthquakes – – – ”
––– lenore kendall, first they slaughtered the angels – –

“ – – and our tears will make earthquakes”

I

a man dies when his shoes have eaten their way up his
throat & strangles his voice with torn leather
a man dies in times of holocaust in a bin of one
hundred human skulls
a man dies in a place blue butterflies have come to rest
a man will be a god, a man will kiss a tyrants ass
a man dies one day with the knowledge his children
have lost their memory
a man dies executing his own soul in cold blood.

II

& girls continue to carry beautiful faces
& bombs give heart attacks & never give love
& a snow monkey glitters in the sun her magnificent
delirium
& the rain tips the scales of the scales of the morning
& men continue to work in factories
men continue to mate with loneliness & technology
the afternoons remain lovely
the beasts remain hungry
the dying remain strange & haunting & awful
a leaf grows touches of yellow
a virgin takes god for a husband
a man lies one day playing hand ball, or so they say
& the poet fades back into the folds of the earth.

july 2023