Atrox
			Contentum


1. Sultry air

The days lean against
One another
And glide slowly into slippers
Of gathering darkness
Eve walks with velvet tread
Towards my orchard
Sinks in the tarn within me

A motion in the corner of my eye
Someone's heart beating time with mine

Your heart glows through your skin
Your heart expands and contracts

Your smile in my hair
Your laughter all in me
You're travelling through my veins
Florid embrace
Strawberry mouth
I'm filled to the edges with you


2. Unsummoned

Now is the third season
The season I don't long
Cause it is here
And you are gone

You were the Incubus
Who raped my sleeping mind

Awake - pain was the master
I crawled in a chasm

But now
Unsown seeds germinate
Unplanted trees bear fruits

The spell is broken
Unsummoned reveries gather
Unwinged thoughts fly

Wind rapidly swings its arms
Takes fruits from the trees
And flings them away

But what's ripe falls
Nevertheless
To the ground


3. Lizard dance

Peek through the hole
And enjoy the lizard dance
Come see the lizards' dance
Out of their skin

See them throw their first tails
Watch the hundredth tail
Form behind a purple body
Come see the lizards' hypnotic dance
See them dance out of their skin...
...and slip into the cauldron

"poor lizards
swimming naked in icy water
I'll light a fire under you...
...if I can only find other matches..."

"you fool!
You can't cook soup on me
I can stand the heat
I'll sprawl in your mouth
I'll curl round your tongue
And I can assure you won't relish me
But...here, have my tail
And now give me my swim mask
I want to explore this kettle!"


4. Panta rei

The autumn sun is restrained to wither
as the winter assumes with its pale pride

The last of life is smothered
Only the remembrance of a season’s departure is left behind
as a ghastly hand sweeps the landscape
The eternal conquering of seasons
And deprivement of beauty and life
The sun is restrained to wither
Only to perish into the twilight of seasons

An eternal eclipse between phases of conquering


5. Gather in me no more

This penetrating pain
arousing from its sleep
This pallid flesh hiding
in shades These hollow
orbits watering the
ground Frantic ghouls
lurking in my shadow
Reptiles crawling under
my skin Temptations
Swansong from the tarn
Cold caresses of a
quivering shroud The
phasma cradling me in
its arms Its wormwood
tongue rasping my face
Flee from me spirits of
ferocity and open the
gates of this limbo
Come to me bringer of
joy and disembody my
pain Hinder the inflow
of figments Let them
gather in me no more
Stop the bleeding Heal
my wounds Melt the
frost in my veins
Dissolve the sickened -
red haze round me and
stop the toll of the knell


6. Ignoramus

I am the Ignoramus But he believes he is concealed when blindfolded And he believes he can
read minds Words written in ink on
cerebral paper And he believes if he becomes learned he'll die, therefore he ignores all
wisdom And he believes sweetness
would wipe him out, therefore he tortures himself And I'm no longer the ignoramus


7. Letters to earth

Some time ago
And for a period of time
I lived on another planet
And in another galaxy
Where time
Didn’t exist

There were no seasons
No nights or days
There were no calendars
No hourglasses

Sometimes I wrote letters to earth
To ask what year, what season it was
Sometimes I wrote letters to earth
To find out how old I had become

And sometimes I was seventy years old
But other times my granddad wasn’t even born
So my letters to him were returned
And I had to note on the envelope
Which year it was supposed to arrive in
Once, for a test, I sent a letter addressed
"Planet Tellus anno 2050"
But I never got neither an answer nor the letter in return

I don’t know how long I lived there
I forgot the meaning of words like
"Tomorrow" and "soon" and "suddenly"
I became both patient and impatient

The strange thing, though
Even if time didn’t exist
I always had plenty of time


8. Serenity

In a transparent myriad of men
I stand, transfixed
I am lost, searching

"Am I the Crestfallen?" I ask
There is no light...
"Am I the Blinded?" I ask
...nor serenity

Redeem me, I yearn
I yearn for an answer
I am lost, searching

"Am I to vanish like water?" I ask
The desert is my daily bread...
"Am I to wither like trodden grass?" I ask
...and tears of threefold my drink

Redeem me, I yearn
I am lost, dear God
Redeem me from this nothingness


9. Homage

My whispering poems My treasures My arch images My treasures They honour me Dead,
creaking trees They praise me Mute, mossy
rocks They worship me Empty shells Why exalt a man murdered by his own muse To prevent
him from turning in his grave?


10. What crawls underneath

As this path was never
meant to be trodden by man
These flowers have been
nurtured for none's eyes
These pebbles have never
been washed ashore These
inner organs have never
been exposed to light
Hyperion and Mimas orbit
for the pleasure of none The
marmot whistles for none's
ear The acrobat performs in
his invisible-suit and mind's
eye has never met anyone's
glance None has tore off the
moss to see what crawls
underneath Or lifted the veil
drained the pools
dissolved the bloodstains
None has unriddled my
Archaic smile Or turned the
russet key in my feeble lock
But someone might have
been scratched by the claws
and impaled on the spears
and pierced by the thorns
and the needles
and the stings