pilgtimage

descend lower, bellow the life liberties,

under the smirk of the deaf weathers

lower down through the immortal night

into the crypt of the clustered scents.

nothing there to trap the sight beside

solid darkness that triggers the lungs

to the tears they too long overdue.

lower and lower not a rest for the feet

but more and more of the same mire to press

while bearing the weight that further rejects

the stalemate scream earned without fall;

deeper down into the pit that purifies hopes

the skin slowly perceiving the mind it abused

as the mind convulses under the dwindling dance

of pretensions it betrayed once in the sentence

and then by the practice; no dream anymore

of a limited conquest, no strife therefore

to pause disaffection with fathomable light:

only the descent that further accepts

the damnation that must peacefully ensue.

there is the point of unique prostration

there is the summit of the rising paradise

the blackest rim of the visioned black

that closes the agony in the breast of monotony;

veins deprived of retribution

limbs absolved from fending tension

the earthly garden that finally spreads

over the breath of the panting muscles

whose drumming scorns the aerial plumes

in the fettered depth toward clinging doom:

the perpetual loss that might pass for

sacramental glory, chosen martyrdom,

renewing in the heat of the languid fire

the darkness of the monumental ground.