My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

IVth PHASE OF THE MOON

sun on wings that did not melt. You play chess with the Emperor of Egypt in an ivory castle. People are dying all around you. I have seen your body stretched out naked before God and reason. Nothing is too incredible to believe about you. Idiot, simpleton, heartbreaker! . . . Teach us the magic of the departing shadow, teach us how to smash our hearts into butterflies! IVth PHASE OF THE MOON You are almost as old as the youngest of us were. So old, old king, and we were in love with your grandfather. See there, on your throne, sitting in judgment like a mountain, see a solitary bird pass through the window, over the banquet table, and down the dark ale-hall towards another window. Your senile heart has ripened into a bird flying. We were in love with your grandfather. Or a flat Tarot pack. A bearded king on a throne in wisdom, a lightning-blasted tower on a throne in wisdom, a crucified fool assbackwards on a throne in wisdom. Fire can only burn, terror can only crumble, the heart can only die. There is room for triumph. Die, then, loved by the gods. Who are we but those that have dared to create you? Lawgiver for your nation, wise as the stone of an old cathedral, moonlight flutters into your ale-hall like a bird without message. Who wrote your laws but those that will be born to destroy them? Who laid that stone but those who will be born to destroy it? The cathedral of stone is beginning to crumble. Die then, loved by the gods who will be born to destroy you, they who were in love with your grandfather. Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page 54 54 ...