[Jeffrey]

prelude to nothing

"I saw what looked like really good food, and then I saw you and so did you."

........- Matt Skiba, "Clavicle"

The men of Mykenai tore down our flags,
their fist-hymns and shield-songs spiraling up
into the smoky air of our last night,
drawing all ears to be serenaded
by the hit parade streaming down our streets,
their track on repeat, heedless to hoarse cries,
requests for a song called "Mercy" cast down
to these butchers whose harps were bent bowstrings.
No ear for music and no heart for war,
I wept at Wilusa's gates, compounded
interest collected by my six senses,
a bitter trust, I turned empiricist,
sight after sight, sound after sound, onward
through the firestorm, Hadad's name on my lips,
<i>Higher then, sparks, let us be the kindling</i>,
I cried, <i>that will set Mt. Zaphon aflame!
Let the gods that once guarded Hattusha
and Sidon and Assur be called false names,
their fame proclaimed by the fey far Westerns!
No more shall wine be poured for Anat,
neither shall Asherah receive her lambs!</i>
At the door-jambs I paused, the chapter held
as commentaries flickered in my ears,
the agents of some outer world speaking
of my motivations, the storyboards
where my innermost fears were sketched in blue.
<i>There is no help left for you</i>, I called out,
<i>O terrible plane whose gods have gone out,
who live only in the words handed down
to the long dead, telling us to be blessed
by believing without seeing. I see
what fruit such faith brings. I choose rocky soil.</i>
And with that I deserted Wilusa,
turning to the deserts, out to the wastes,
to see those things face to face that seeks plains
that are waterless, unpeopled, untilled.
There, she sat in repose, spun by satyrs
under a westward sun. Now I believe.