agon assembled to compete requires
discourse of course across the great divide
draining to the east of us and
draining to the west of us and
never intertwining in meandering streams
of consciousness or beneath the level
of telling that great fiction we tell so well

listen to my fable each entreats while
discordant harmonies klang down channels
tingling one another’s finger tips
slipping on the corners of the dry pages
of ancient dusty tomes dragged down
from shelves built by carpenters of Ghent
or Reims or other towns near river highways

brown Rhine or red Danube or isotope trope
awaiting a half life for glowing growing flesh
like spirit sparkle neither here nor there
as Hilda had her Helen on walls and banks
of the silted delta Protean writhing between
worlds the existence of either of which
being problematic in a Derridean sense

puzzle me nary a cross word across or down
just tell me why such a large brain OK
is it just to have room to keep track of lies
lies in epic lyrical drama lies harmonious
lies dissonant and grating lies… but does it matter
because it isn’t raining rain you know
and who would ever believe that

First published in Nerve Cowboy