In Ether,
Over Mountain,
Weighing Nothing,
Spirits struggle.
Smashing first sends second screaming,
"I have rested since beginning
Watching mountain grow!
Tell me why you strike my center
When I but spread and glow?"
As second slows and turns about,
First approaches, threatening,
"Existence is in motion —
Strike and I will show thee what I know."
With no notion of aggression,
Second stalls,
"Then move on with your motion,
I'll forgive this as experience."
First turns slender-streaking,
"Then forgive perforation —
And know how motion goes!"
Stabbing to the center,
Is Dragon from the moment;
Speared to soul-most suffering,
Is Saladin awoken.
Reflex in the instant
Grapples body-blade,
Incorporating traces
Of associations made;
Beings born of nothing
Turn to crystal gauntlets green;
Emerald armor shapes around a form,
as yet unseen.
Strong arms shake the serpent from the sword.
Falling formless from the flaming cutter,
Screams the snake —
"Such a small amalgamation
Does not make an adversary,
But I'm pleased that thou wilt
Crackle as I crush thee!"
Into mountain drops the Dragon;
Watches Saladin, foundation shake.
"An egg the demon has created,
Organizing agony;
Organs, does the beast develop,
Systems forcing slavery;
His motion has infected
My bed-rock, Sweet Serenity!"
Pressed to protect Firmity
Does Saladin descend;
Grasping rapier's flame
He slashes into Dragon's sphere.
Echoes beckon weakness.
Crystal armor shields.
"All is," a low voiced multitude of spirit,
"Why is wrong?" in somber tone,
"For what?" in plaintive acid bath.
Saladin, in severing,
"Children as their maker made them,
Enter every difference
That instrument can annotate;
Each is equal —
Totipotent.
"And all will only slow dissolve
In the enzymes of this system —
Competition.
"Maker made me indigestion.
"Maker made me indigestion,
In the belly of the Dragon,
Building in its small intestine
Spreading veins of conflagration.
"Setting voice to disillusion,
Burning back the irritation,
Throwing embers into stagnant breeze.
"Lighting on the ample kindling,
Wisps of burning intuition
Set to blazing consternation
Tongues of scorching discontent!"
Tongues of scorching discontent
Flit across the slashing sword
Of Saladin
Within the Dragon.
In the Dragon,
Clad in crystal,
Sheened slick
With caustic ichor,
Spinning in the dracoplasma,
Surfing through the caustic currents,
Hacking through the endoderm,
Hears a voice blow from the core —
Hears a voice blow from the core:
"Is my life wrong?"
Saladin keeps slashing
But he spins about,
"Is it wrong that I should be?
That I exist as maker made me?"
Saladin, not tricked,
Strikes harder, faster, deeper
"Not wrong that you should be,
But it is agony inside you
So I shall harry thee eviscerate
To emptiness.
"To emptiness
Obliviate,
Unendodermed and undigesting,
Merely flitting as free radical,
As maker makes me
Make you."
The Dragon quakes
To still the sword,
Disengorging essence,
Separates within itself
Automatons
In repto-image.
In repto-image,
His nemeses,
Sees, Saladin, approaching:
By swimming wing
And many legs
And undulation serpentine.
That by wing which flashes bright,
He labels Haste,
Who would drive him to the others;
Shame, that serpentine which cackles low
To shake the vigor out of rapier;
These two start the siege of him.
These two start the siege of him,
Haste, swooping like a falcon,
Baring steaming teeth,
And self-scraping talons sparking,
Turns the dive just out of reach,
The flaming blade of Saladin;
The cackles coil, unremembered,
Quickly through the ankles crystal clad,
Tightening to drop the figure
Disorient and suffocate.
"A petty struggle this,"
Whispers forked tongue flicking ear.
Whispers forked tongue flicking ear,
As iron muscles tighten, binding arms,
"From one who threw our maker to the mountain,
He must have seen this plan then —
In what you thought was glory-moment."
Beneath emerald plate
The pulsing being loses glow.
The many-legged beast he will call Guilt
Clenches every claw
To leg and arm,
"You should have left our maker in the skies —
Know all is his, as you die.
"Know all is his, as you die.
Constricted and entangled,"
Saladin yet yearns — convinced he must succeed.
The laughter of the Dragon
Coalesces one more demon —
A shade that slides through chinks in armor
And whispers in the mind —
"Though hast failed and
Thou art failure —
Ease into digestion —
We shall make a place for thee."
"We shall make a place for thee."
The Demon Doubt did promise
And slowly from inside his armor
Was, Saladin, digested.
Lost in pieces,
Deep encysted,
The crystal armor gleams.
And the flaming sword
Is scorching every hand that reaches.
Somewhere, still in struggle,
Is the central soul of Saladin —
Released within the Dragon.
Released within the dragon
The central soul of Saladin
Drifts only for a moment
Before surfacing.
Emerging into bubble —
A mortal captured form —
Recognizing skin thin signs,
The spirit struggles —
Unifying;
Death defying, naturally
The soul, by day,
Ruptures into dream.
Ruptures into dream,
All in ether,
Soul embraces,
Extrapolates infinity,
Burns on every spark that is;
Then returns to battle dragon,
Reasoning the dream away.
Trapped in daily mortal form,
Distracted from the spirits' struggle,
Shackles into habit,
The only body known;
The only body known,
For fear,
Comfort craves.
Insists it is a man
And its weakness is innate;
In memory, are Father-Mother
World-birth and childhood
Wrinkled adolescent brain
And programs of society;
But still is something other,
Pulsing,
Denying what would seem
The most natural selections.
The most natural selections
Benefit just body,
But the captured soul of Saladin
Rejects them.
"Reptilian," he thinks,
"Destroying others' children"
"A depth these senses miss."
As he stares into the mirror,
Running fingers through his spreading hair
"Why must the strands be tied?
As much as eyes reveal,
These pupils lie."
"These pupils lie."
Soul-holder speaks,
So only he may hear,
"They claim a confidence
But I see fear."
Looking down,
To count five fingers,
Each upon a hand
"What an arbitrary math this is,
Logic propagates
Its errors
Its clouds, it claims,
Are clear.
"Need clear examples be justified
Rationalized
Objectified?
Does crunching mind make right?"
The young form holding Saladin
Clenches fists to feel the knuckles bend.
"Does all deceive —
That obvious is hidden?"
Shaking head,
It frees the feeling;
Body quickly snaps attention,
Teacher preaches more programming;
Teacher preaches more programming;
Blindly guides association,
Spreads to thirty living beings,
Identical words.
Knowing only competition,
Living off the dragon,
The mortal form of Saladin
Is chided to remember.
Reminded into madness,
The sensate center separates,
Drifts to touch the dream,
Awake.
Awake,
The moral memory ensnares;
Association's spreading web
Entangles would-be righter,
Baffling the body,
Sealing voice between the ears;
Programs won't go in,
Nor can dragon-slayer speak.
The fable of the nation states,
The dreamer only fabricates
Hallucinates
And hesitates.
And hesitates
The daily form
Holding Saladin;
Unable to elucidate
The common fate
Of those upon the film;
The dragon lives beneath their feet,
A continual anxiety,
Divides the paths so none will lead,
Except for those
Whose paranoia
Dominates.
Dominates
The dragon's skin:
Iron scales
Out of balance.
All this sees the soul of Saladin
Whose mortal form is muted:
Too wise to be refuted,
Too young to be believed.
He sits silent through calculus,
Fists clenched tight beneath his sleeves
He's lost sight of the dragon
For the trees.
For the trees yearns Saladin,
for canopy's green shelter;
Heat,
that would send softer souls sweltering to cover,
beckons spirit snared within,
that would chew acorns for its freedom;
but must remain to stem the scabs of asphalt scarring Gaia;
the mountain burns beneath them.
The mountain burns beneath them,
those that cart themselves in car,
pressing fire to the pedal — burning death of dinosaur
pushing half-a-ton of metal tearing air and burning rubber
to save half an hour and a walk molested by the horns
exhaust
and petrol air
Petrol air
reminds
with every breath:
A purpose in society.
The muted mouth
will propagate the obvious.
So the body waits,
though the heat could not quell the soul of Saladin,
he cannot run under leaves in burning breeze;
Thus he hesitates for nature's sake.
For nature's sake,
the soul will find a voice
to shake the false foundation —
shell of dragon's egg.
The moss across it spreads
as oak, pine and dogwood;
and innocent creatures underneath;
What is Saladin to strike?
Intangible,
in between,
lives the struggle,
in the ether:
Competition Substrative
Competition substrative
is the force to fight.
How is Saladin to strike for peace
when creatures eat each other?
Cold loneliness accompanies the form,
when clanging bell releases from the room;
silent strides the body holding soul,
walks to future pressed into a mold:
Unconscious Cog
Unconscious Cog:
Proceeds in action
Into age
Watching others like menagerie
Dancing difference
Praising cage
Aging body watches, muted by the failure
Of soul-force slow dissolved;
Yet, squeezing through the generations,
The coming tongue evolves.
The coming tongue evolves,
in the form that holds the soul of Saladin,
walking careful on the skin of dragon;
much of mountain recognizes thin form strutting bold,
daring dragon to defy its simple from of life,
how both bold and careful is the strutting form to be?
—By striding into future
Unafraid and unintrusively.
Unafraid and unintrusively,
The soul seeks spirit into dream,
to touch the inner outer being
stitching through the mortal memory;
To wake contorts the vision of the dream;
Sleeping surity of transience distorts the conscious purpose:
Peace.
The soul of Saladin
has no relief in resting deep.
In resting deep,
the body idle,
exposing soul,
lets spirit see; the eyes cannot delude;
the voice cannot misspeak;
the ears do not mishear the cries of suffering
beneath the skin of dragon
writhing through the shell
generations that would be;
Generations that would be
stewards to the next
abort themselves to keep from living here —
seething beings raging underneath,
"You are present.
Do not waste our efforts to communicate from grave;
Airy entities steering clear
refuse to stitch what we will tear.
"Refuse to stitch what we will tear.
Do not organize us arbitrary;
Do not promote the momentary;
Leaving us disaster to undo."
Sees the soul of Saladin,
when mortal eyes are dark,
hears the soul,
when every sense is cloaked;
when no motion is aware,
every action teaches,
the Perfect Plan.
The perfect plan
to steward nothing into all
would explode the mind to see
but cannot harm the soul;
the mind connects the body,
through spirit to the all;
the all exists in end;
the soul of Saladin sees burning
every hand that reaches.
Burning every hand that reaches,
the flaming blade blisters out a space,
liquefying serpent flesh,
as it drifts within the dragon.
Jaws clamped around the sword
would become the flame a fire tongue;
Rue the day the dragon's maw is done.
In dream the soul can see the sizzling bubble shine.
The sizzling bubble shine,
the beast feels searing through,
scarring fetus forming;
by day the shell is often quaking.
If Saladin, on dragon's skin,
took sword for voice,
nature's verdant moss would burn from being —
Self-extermination.
Self-extermination —
Hunting man to thin the numbers — Disinterring womb.
Mechanizing mentally — bodily roboticizing
Bleaching labor pool to stop the algae,
Keeping currents running,
While the rich take dips and piss with every trip,
Metabolizing carbonating leverage
Metabolizing carbonating leverage —
Drinks the caffeine nectar,
Burns the sugars beats the heart.
"Faster!" screams the hungry gut.
Faster cut the groove to rut —
Faster!
But the body is a wisp to burn;
Stress crusts the spirit's tender skin.
Stress crusts the spirit's tender skin, desensitizing —
Unable to express imagination,
Lulls the body fat with entertainment,
Kept giggling by waste.
Sit the souls of Saladin,
That central spark has spread,
Glowing like a brazier warming bed —
Instead of boiling.
Instead of boiling,
Body water pure in individual,
The light of self-awareness turns within —
To smuggenned smiles ignorant of others living.
Satisfying, inwardly, with ease of passing life:
Such dumb progression is the muscle of the dragon,
Rolling with progressions
Awkward steps.
Awkward steps
Take the body with the central soul,
The central soul of all,
The central soul in all,
The central soul is all — in every one,
centers stumble
Stubbing toes and stepping on them —
Interruptus
Interruptus
Is a body flitting —
Touching every body living —
With a vacancy of memory and mindfulness —
Tripping infants, slapping children, twisting criminal,
Interruptus confounds —
Striking void into its rival —
Manifestus
Manifestus
Holding memory
Reasons further growth
Fans the glowing embers of the waiting blaze,
But will not give to open fire, what must grow to form within,
A self-sustaining pilot,
Shining light to guide the meeker pieces of the being —
Living Manifestus.
Living Manifestus
Forgets the need for vice,
Gathering through bodies —
The strength to sound the voice.
All the souls of Saladin are equal to the choice:
Live to never die or survive to sacrifice —
This body is beginning, but a child can be wise; faith does not mean silence,
Fight the lie.
Fight the lie that we must fight —
Clashing corpses, spilling blood.
We all are one.
Fight the lie with chanting voices —
Singing individual indivisible;
We all are one:
One Entity,
One Life
One life,
Beyond the body,
Sensibly invisible,
Yet self-evident,
Is Manifestus spreading — Saladin within it
Senses Interruptus —
Unconscious action, offensive ignorance,
Closed soul dancing.
Dancing,
In its body, the soul of Saladin keeps only form alive —
All intent with Manifestus —
Never knowing Interruptus,
If it steals instants for violence,
The soul lets go of fleeting moments,
Focusing deeply into everything —
Never knowing.
Never knowing,
Deaf to backwards,
Trusting something other — that Manifestus guides.
The first spark of being that divided knew the step was best,
But after Interruptus,
Ignorance backed,
Keeps Manifestus forward —
Pressing souls will know.
Pressing souls will know,
Both forces come between us,
Cresting into murder —
Collapsed communication,
Between the souls of Saladin, trying to kill dragon through each other.
Walks the central soul found dumb,
Wondering wondering at how,
At how to kill the dragon.
At how to kill the dragon, mustn't that beast know?
If it slides into the serpent's mind, wouldn't that soul see?
So incorporate the body —
Put the poison under scale — let it highward climb —
Interruptus will reflect to Manifestus —
All will know and all the souls of Saladin
Will glow.
Will glow
Again like separate stars
Upon a skyward chain
The body keeping Saladin
Would seem insane
Were it to call the system growing by its name —
The dragon spreads,
The body walks.
The body walks,
While flaming carriages
Expend the fuel saved against the Sun.
By moments meeting every one,
The body, dressed in black, shakes hands,
Acknowledging many spirits dancing —
Wasting what is given; the frivolous
Contract.
Contract
Diseases it created,
Living on the scab
Infections on the asphalt —
Sated in infant mausoleums.
The body doesn't burst into eternal rêve, instead
It studies how to heal the dying here; dreaming up a future,
Working there.
Working there,
The future body moment flows in effort by desire.
The body here sees bills;
Willing to ignore them,
With effort does the employee make register of self,
Watching hours pass as dollars,
Counting pennies not enough,
The body holding Saladin folds bluff
The body holding Saladin folds bluff,
Walking into street, voice raised to call the demons,
A simple seeming man contends behind the strutting spirit —
Sparks the claws of haste,
As part of Manifestus
Now forward,
Steady motion keeps the spirit safe,
As it spins shame away.
The serpent struggles with its coils
To suffocate the being —
Dancing into future and dreaming while awake
On sidewalk walled with crab grass and spreading air potato,
The body touching spirit sings falsetto —
Calling into open
The nemeses
Of calm.
Of calm,
Recollecting little —
Grasses under back
Over turf soft and fertile,
A sun in autumn sky relenting summer burn,
Setting purple after tangerine, lavender and pink intermingle,
All around — reflecting clouds.
All around reflecting clouds
Keep crimson under order.
Blood-letting sibs kill each other.
Hypocrisy both far way and near destroy the mother;
Soon magnolia will not bloom
And roaches will salute each other;
If Saladin can't speak,
Muted stewards kill their brothers.
Kill their brothers —
Every soldier,
And for penance will self-burn —
The immolation lighting paths for those unturned
Who have only followed moment as sheep
By Judas led —
To recycle and reseed the population just undead —
Like the Styx flowing red.
Like the Styx flowing red,
Those dipped in dragon's blood
Are safe from everything except the arrows of our unified fate;
Interruptus — Manifestus
Both are elements for same,
The body walking faithfully between
Sees nothing but a single path —
The Arbitrary Intertwain.
Intertwain,
The body sees itself
In flames of flesh wrapt around the souls
And all are Saladin;
Muted by the pyre, we walk;
Smoldering in dragon,
We have form laying law — to ease this consumption — obedient to all
But song of soul.
But song of soul,
Still, soothes a calming whisper,
Understated between us,
"Interrupt us as we manifest
Dragon will not die
Mortality consumes us,
But we can brazen burn;
Saladin can pacify."
"Saladin can pacify;
Let us leave our armor lie,
But we must sheathe the flaming blade
So dragon breathes no fire
And its organizing members do not boil into cysting.
Interruptus can protect us passing time;
Manifestus guide us out of habit,
Baring confidence."
"Baring confidence,
We are not shaken by the heathen haste,
We slip away from shame,
We outstep the goblin guilt,
And give no evidence for doubt."
Confidence corporeal, shines the soul of Saladin, pressing on to suffer,
Tired voice talking calmer as it softens,
Speaking on.
Ryan David Undeen is the beloved little king of the water spirits, child of the Sun, the Wind, and the Water, born under Virgo, a sign of the Earth, in Newfoundland, an island of rocks and ice named as an insult. Raised in the muggy smug of Florida, he has long wondered.
Comments (closed)
Matt Lawrence
2008-08-19 15:10:42
This is for the ages. It deserves to be carved and kept and celebrated.
T.S. Edgar Allen Undeen with a mighty twist of deeper mystery.
Outrocking the Apocalypse.