Lost Nobility

 

I read SupeGirl when I was a kid too
I knew about booting up
stretching the rules
straight to the main vein
I knew what you meant
   when you wondered should she be stiff
glossy magazines
cigarette diaries
a tree with a shallow grave underneath,

these were learned lessons
fast
wasn't enough
asleep under the blue glow
big brother-turned-stranger thumbing soft strings
and the sound of the real world,

I've heard bears in the woods
I know what it means to become stale with fear
useless,
and I know what it means to be at peace
useless,
I read what the Devil did
carried the guilt 'cause
I believed it
I was so young dammit
spent too much time bent over yellow toilet water
wasn't fast enough
hadn't heard that elk
in that canyon
yet,

now I know
time is of the essence really
madness is not merely enough
elk pass often if you know where to look
singing to one another in the night
like whales beneath the sea
velvet crowns and silk stocking'd
guarding their wooded fiefdom
a baron's ballad echoing from the dark trees
lamenting lost nobility to the stars
a trumpeting to outpace Voyager's golden heartbeat
a bellows of exploration
a call to wildness
don't say you are alive
if you are not.

TA