- The Telepathic Carnivore *
Will Alexander, Poet and Essayist: A Special Section
The fleece of its ubiquitous mineral body like a blinded port in the midst of the sea the lion Panthera leo a double gender on land a carnivore which gallops across the open floor of the galaxy
the lion extended by a sun fed carnauba fending off the ambush of sleep fending off its rivals camouflaged like an invisible nightmare pony
in its vistas telepathy as carnivorous ignition as a flame which ascends through rivalrous stampedes
the lion Panthera leo seeming to draw to its powers the pernoctation of spirit the central delta of its roaring
in its riddled mask of circumference there is purity & status there is its savagery of glass monitored under stone & its savagery [End Page 378] absolutely non-monaxial like a hollowed flame in the flask of its teeth full of running oils & momentary lavas capable of hunting in a haunted neutron savannah which eradicates its dialectical wound marks dragging its vermiculate prey through the narrowed sluice of an alien solar vicinity
this lion past whirlwind & androsphinx part juniper branch part cyclone as flaw
because it weighs in its moons invisible vampire feathers & general brush lightning deserts
its obscurity torrential by which pythons rest by which leopards implode
yes it lives by hieroglyphs of negated luminosity by which spells are lengthened by which tree lines are convened
so the lion struggling with alchemical swine in its fleece in its feral vacillations so that the curvature of its eyes capable of detecting the pivotal postulates of hydrogen so that the deprived scorching of its sound capable of advancing a strengthened helium soil so that its searing its devious restoration [End Page 379] comes to a balance in a strange & demanding optical palette
which lingers in pure water in explosive ozone deer the ambiguities being rampant the movement boiling
the lion now telepathic under plankton under greenish snow fall ravines
Panthera leo instantaneous with its genetic deflection across demons thereby singeing its skin to the colour which flows in a transcendental verbal swagger
Will Alexander is the author of six books, including Asia & Haiti, The Stratospheric Canticles, and Towards the Primeval Lightning Field. Asia & Haiti was a PEN finalist in 1996. His more recent work has been published in Orpheus Grid, XCP, Fence, Chain, and Hambone.
Footnotes
* From Above the Human Nerve Domain (Pavement Saw Press, 1999). Reprinted by permission of the author.