"purpose"

untitled

I'm lying on my back in a shallow grave. My arms are limp. I can't pull myself out of the ditch. Some guy standing over me asks if I need a hand. I think I remember him from high school. I'd seen him on Fountain Square last fall, too, but didn't say hi. I ask him what he wants in return. He says a good deed is its own reward. I don't believe him. “What do you want?”

“I want you to ask.”

“Fuck you.” I try again to free myself but still can't do it. Some kind of rodent is biting me; it itches. The sky is a blinding white. Now it's raining. It stings. I'm bleeding! No, it's the droplets... they don't stop. It's raining blood. Where is the guy from high school? I see a bulldozer; it's marked 'CYPRUS UNIVERSITY POLICE'. I can't breathe. Mud and gravel are falling on me. I want to take one last breath. I can't. “Will you help me?” Everything goes black.

 "a death too little"

then worms shall try

that long-preserved virginity

Andrew Marvel

"To His Coy Mistress"

THANATOPSIS

(excerpted from the title poem by

William Cullen Bryant)

"Bring the Mud"

And the kings of the earth,

and the great men,

and the rich men,

and the chief captains,

and the mighty men,

and every bondman,

and every free man,

hid themselves

in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

And said

to the mountains and rocks,

Fall on us.

Revelation 6:15,16

"Public Enemy, Public Darling"

... with kings and counsellors of the earth,

 which built desolate places for themselves; 

or with princes that had gold, who filled 

their houses with silver ...

Job 3:14-15

"Deep Vanity"

For there is no remembrance of the wise more than the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool.

Ecclesiastes 2:16