Poem from Arcanum of the Everyday (chapbook by Dustin Pickering)

An assault against the dignity of fire

Like Oppenheimer as he crafts the atom bomb

And we always knew your basement

Was full of empty robes of wandering

Night closes in like a hurricane boss

Robbing the enigma from the initiates

I seek the pleasure dome where the crucifixion dwells

Mind over Matter because light is bright and kills

The geometry of space and the secrets of time

Are things we cannot lose and will not in rhyme

I am carrier of the baptismal torch

Pressing hope against lazy lips

That won’t pronounce the angel’s name properly

In downcast eyes we see the oblivion of Chance Our horror

is unseen by the serpent of dreams In the thoughtlessness of

void and facile forces The enemy combatants do not end

their battalions

If night was a recluse my name is smeared on your doorstep

The merciless penny is penury of the wolf’s lock step

Open the mouths and feed them!

Open the mouths and feed them!