Put the Load on Me

Here, at your feet, all the gargoyles of heaven— kneel upon your furnace, their tongues worship you. You can love only one, the one you rest your hand upon, his head so sharp, his sulphur breath...Even now a saint makes his way up your steps, on his knees he is coming, he will find you, with his sword he will kill the beasts, all of them— he swears this will save you. • Earlier, a deer stood by the side of the road deciding whether or not to kill me. I cannot blame her, I cannot blame anyone—many animals were hurt in the production of this book just as many trees were hurt & all the clouds. Open any book & the cloud above you bursts into flame, you know this & yet nothing stops you, the sky stuck to the end of your finger as you point to it. • This is how it works—the master does not bow before his servant, he does not stand naked before her robes, his hands are empty yet he does not offer— not even a cupful—of his emptiness, how could he? How could the world then keep spinning? He made his money (as they say) the old-fashioned way, meaning he earned it, meaning slaves, meaning go fuck yourself. • Geometry deals with properties of space. Figs (a "multiple fruit") are like strawberries only inside out—its skin is a receptacle. Saint Francis didn't eat for forty days, until his body erupted & now we call it ecstasy. Years later Frankenstein found a way to raise the dead.Friend, his creation mutters,flower. • A storm will come the radio says find a ditch & lie facedown in it. Find your ditch & lie facedown & pray we will all lie down & pray after all there's only so many places to hide. We all need help the land is vast & dense & full of eyes & so many flowers the soil inside us is darker than oil lie down in it & pray. • Remember: it's not that everything has to look like something else, or even remind you of something else—everything is something else. This is the story we've been telling ourselves since we could speak.Possess nothing, Francis says.Do good everywhere. No one believes those wings will lift you.