“We know where we are from,
where we are, and where we are going.”
Valentinus of Alexandria, ca. 130 C.E.
We know where we are from:
descended from Wisdom
down the coiled passion of dark sensation
the daughter wished to know the Father
and he his Depths, the essence
of Light streamed forth, spiralling down
in moonlight phosphorescence
upon the waters of the Great Nun
spectres with lanterns, gather soon
to stand upon the night-time shore
our city of white sepulchres, obelisks of the moon
shine o’er the siren-sea. We do not implore,
we Alexandrines.
We know where we are:
denizens of Fate, ensnared in matter
the hubris of history may scatter
human parameters of paltry pain
whorled patterns in the briny brain
but embossed in spirit, deep in fear
the green man within, skirmishing, skims
with spinning motions, nether near
to the bottom, swiftly swims
in nescient silence, smothering, steep
numinous particle in the shredding night
where numb aeons of an emulous Deep
their grasping tentacles about our core of Light.
We know where we are going:
expiring body borne up a bubbly stream
an effervescent rise of recollection
for the oxygen-starved heart & intellection
the kiss of a mermaid, her sudden breath
thrusting a flame of life at caliginous death
in the ecstatic panic of presence, delight
press her cool lips, as she tails you up, inhale
her body snaking and clasping you tight
bare-breasted from black to dark-blue
then turquoise light, you crave
shoals of sparkling luminescence
and burst upon a wave, tumescent
gasp upon the heaving surface with lungs of fire
yet plunge again in the tossing sapphire
yearning for the lingering, life-giving kiss
too late: she dives, twisting, down the abyss.
DMcB