Reveille

As an infant once content
within the tight grip of her
swaddling clothes
one day
yearns to stretch
her wild limbs,
thrust her fist
out of the grave
into life unknown,

so
our minds
sometimes
awaken
and the cradle walls
of tradition and authority
that felt so safe
so comforting
show the pallor of death,
and the confines
of closed eyes and stopped ears
the guarded bliss of thoughtlessness
the silence of slumber
show the outline of the sepulcher.

So easy
it would be
to acquiesce
as tens of billions have before us done
so easy and painless, the rolling over into another dim
and deaf-dumb
snooze.

Come with me
oh my love
awaken
do not give in to sleep

alone it feels sometimes
but we are not the first
who want to know
who want to see
not the first
to care for truth
above all else

above comfort
and belief
above the substance
of wishes

the comatose billions
are the truly
alone

Wake up!

Throw off the blankets
that smother us
with vacuity

tear them apart
leave them ruined
discarded
cast-offs of a former life

aren't you as soul-sick of nibbling at the vomitous edge
as I am?

aren't you as ready to fill the earth with languages
never before spoken?
sing syllables so gorgeous
constellations cannot echo them?
can you taste them on your tongue?

see them leaping from the lip,
too exuberant for grammar

Come out!

at last
at last

the worm bursts forth into the dangerous air
with dazzled wonder
unfurls forbidden wings

lift your eyes with me
explore with me
think with me
live with me

at last
at last

take flight