Biography

PROLOGUE Biographies are for men who have a need to cry To spell out what we remember is to subtract all We forget, for knowing then nothing knew, a lie Conjured by history, there's no a priori here at all If you will not abuse my love I will dive for you deeper forgotten things, bring Up from bottom hate to prove To be a better god we gladly, boldly took the sting And could not have merely comprehended joy until Our serpent made the safe-God to repent of his will Here is my life strands of sands upon your windy palm I'm the syllables of every gospel, beginning at the Psalm Proverbs skinned like rice from the shaft, seeking balm. History immaculate pristine in no myth ever shall sleep Introspection vigils struggle between words and memory Philosophy is a dream, not I, who numbers days urgently, The sleeping dog will sleep, but my promise let me keep. i IDENTITY I do not even know how it began, night or day Rain or shine - nor what season they had interplay I only know that nine must have been too long since I overstayed my time and made her grimaced, grunt And groaned to push me out. So of course, I wince Privy to so much uncertainty. I have a given month A date, but what is time alone for anyone's beginning I want to remember the pool I paddled in the flesh The long rope that called my navel a primal mouth The red tide of mud from her veins which so much clout I was hooked on it, around the perimeter where I thresh So much more can come from a real truth of beginning. I mean, how comes we have no control over our beginning And you expect me in the middle to give you meaning I will not buy the lie, I choose allegiance but know not how The end shall fufill its promises of me. The air burns still Like an acrid vapor on the lungs, and not yet I shall spill The anger from the fumes of air, nor low ever can I bow Before the hand that slapped my butt and told me scream. You say indecent, I say unjust, for he proved no love so Soon nor knew of me any wrong. The conspirators team Around a common cause: a man must cry so they know He has life; my kicking legs were not enough. The water Suddenly left me swaddled in air and just a little laughter. I do not take kindly to being whipped, nor did I protest then About my eviction, and the sudden weight of many things.