I have come and gone many times And turned my soul upon a rhyme As if the finest joke on earth's To be always beginning where I was. 5 Troubled troubadour and truculent whore, Soldier, sailor and tailor and more; Each rotating mood or face Another fated deck shot by an ace. The several major arcana and their signs 10 Cast their shadows on my soul; Sour and sweet they they cross and meet And their friction boils my bones. Bird or man or querlous bee, Or gladdened tangle of these three I am stuck on 15 Winter's blankest branch Or come to Summer's triumphant tree: Hung, flung, or even undone Our lives' alliance shifts upon a breeze Straying or staying like some mourner's melody 20 Upon the upright mystery. With ignorance and assurance I strut; With innocence and wickedness I walk; With whatever measure I may I go; Indisputable and bouyant I stalk. 25 Mother shadow and darkest seed Direct from the nothing above And sink to the nothing below All the lightness that I may need. Cajoling aueroles of flowers 30 From these honey-bloods I bleed Dripped to ground beyond my powers Until light and time a resurrection freed. Calliopes' sighs and a lover's tropes Rope my myriad thoughts to things; 35 Tied together what need I fear Save a lesser tension in the strings? I have come and gone many times And turned my soul upon a rhyme As if the finest joke on earth's 40 To be always beginning where I was.
From the collection "The Soft Assault"
Written by Gregg Glory [Gregg G. Brown]
More information available on gregglory.com.