HIEROGLYPHIC

HIEROGLYPHIC
	
               The imaged Word, it is, which holds   
                Hushed willows anchored in its glow.   
                It is the unbetrayable reply
                Whose accent no farewell can know.
 	          			           ─Hart Crane
          i.
The ennobled word in print’s ink cloak
       is dead, Hart, good as extinct
Until affixed, again and again, by the sun-
      shine of a mind’s avid and red
Reading, mounting, as if the winged horse
	of a poem’s horizontal line. 

The sun itself licks a pyramid’s pointy tip, 
        dawn lapping dew
As if off Aphrodite’s Mediterranean ass 
        or boob. Soon all hell 
Breaks loose. At hightide the ocean’s lacy 
        brine explodes, 
		
	ii.
Goes, Whee, whee, whee, whee, all the way 
        home. Eden was 
Soil, snake, apple and vine. Then exile into 
        actuality’s grime. 
O Imaged Word, O worm! Would that you 
        went on wriggling 

Inside your skin’s iridescent slime, earthy 
        as nymphs who tease,
Scream, and climb trees to intensify desire 
        in satyrs who bleat
Like goats, bark like men, each a hieroglyph 
        of sincere mockery.

7.1.2025