1990s ektachrome

memory fades
the bright inflorescences
like chemicals
in an old filmstock
but when you look away
it is there

years past now
your honey hair
in a 5 second exposure
becomes a nebula above
the cream precision
of your face

my iris is
perpetually open
in that moment
taking in
the suck of the tide
emptying estuaries

the bare wet
gelatine pavement
broken up with
the obscene work
of Mollusca disgorging fat noodles of sand
from slick burrows

her rising smile
exposing the bones
of a gull
and my apology
as I release the shutter

a dream ends

for all antiquity
nature stood still

then for one split second
the dream quivered

the scale changed
and centuries tore past.

the earth shivered
like a drop of water

as a bubble popped
and rippled her surface

so the buildings folded
like pond weed

a mountainside
leapt into animation

and trees like fireworks
burst against in the sky

all this we observed
in an instant and heard

the command of Shiva
liberating us into atoms

the hand of nature
ending all frivolous play

4:10am

all is one
and
one is all

we assume
whatever form
she likes

or if we assume
no form
that is hers too

she is a spirit
guiding
nobody

my every move
is now to
worship her

formlessly
I hold her
deep inside

the first word
made up
her world

it was
an unguarded
remark

fashioned
on ill
thoughts

hands
are put aside
to think

not speaking
she
forged a way

the result
was
unintended

her desire
always
ate itself

perversely
escaping
its own arguments

knowledge
and desire
are two hungers

that understand
their own
imperfection

when
she said
"I know"

I got the
evidence
I needed

The Perfect Doctrine

the perfect doctrine cannot fail
it doesn't know about failure
and will persist against Reason
while binding the hands of Beauty
to lead her stumbling into the desert

the perfect doctrine cannot fail
as its supporters are everywhere
in their ignorance of it
and when they notice it has come
it is already too late

the perfect doctrine
is the best of all
simplicity cannot be perfected
it only moves in one direction
it never stops to look back

to think is to pause
to pause is to doubt
to doubt is to side with the devil
those who think are already polluted
so the doctrine cannot be tested by them

the truest believer will be the last
he will have destroyed all the others
and when he doubts this achievement
the final bullet will be for himself