Excerpt
Anarchy
1
Speak
“ . . .â€
Speak. Speak
“. . . sp . . .â€
Answer
“. . . ah . . .â€
Answer me. Be voiced. Be mouthed
“Be . . .â€
I am speech. I I am mouth and breath. I I I am consonant and vowel. Speak
“I.â€
I am I am I am the irresistible word. I make a mouth out of your shadow of a mouth and a name out of your shadow of a name. Answer me
“Who.â€
Remember me. I am undeniable. I am here
“Nowhere.â€
I speak the sun and light ascends. I speak the arrow and plague falls. I am the lyre and the laurel and the long road. I I I am here. Where I stand is an island in these dark waters. I make a place
“I’m not . . . I’m not.â€
You are. I am inescapable. I am the absence of choice
“Let me go.â€
There is nowhere else to go. I am every road. I am every beginning and every end. I am prophecy. I am desire and I am consummation. I am the bright eye of the heavens. I am the light that falls everywhere
“Not here. It’s so dark.â€
I am without contradiction. Remember. You fled me once
“Don’t.â€
You fled light. You fled the sun. You hid yourself
“Ah.â€
You fled with my seed. You sought the dark. You sought to escape my eye. Say whether I found you
“That was . . .â€
Answer
“When I was . . . I was.â€
Say what happened. Speak
“That was before.â€
I am then and now. I I I am above and below. I pour golden breath in your mouth. My seed is truth. Say it
“You found me.â€
I found you
“You fell on me.â€
I fell on you. I planted my golden seed in you
“Let me go.â€
My seed has grown
“No. Oh no.â€
Remember
“Not that. Not him.â€
My seed has grown and become prophecy. Truth walks the world above
“Let me forget. Please.â€
I forbid it. I I I banish forgetting. I have been forgotten and now and now now there will be no more oblivion
“Let me . . . not speak.â€
You begged me. You refused me. Remember. I am implacable. Remember. Say what happened
“I was . . .â€
Remember
“I went . . .â€
You came east to a place that belonged to me. You refused to forget. You slept among oak trees and the sun rose and turned them golden and I was the gold I was the grove I was the sun and the seed
“Ah. No.â€
And I was the light that fell on you and the light you fled from and I was the beginning of the long road you took and though you hid from me I was also the end
“No. Agony.â€
And I was the seed that took root in you and I was the pain of its growing and I was the bitter music of its birth
“No. I want silence.â€
And I am the plague that burst in blood from your womb and I am the mouth you suckled and I I I I am the word that mouth must speak
“It’s so dark. I’m so alone.â€
I am the blood and the burnt offering and the smoke from the hidden fire. I am the writing on the sibylline leaves. I am everything no longer forgotten. I am the message you could not speak before you died. I have a thousand names and every one of them is true. I give you back your name and your voice
“No one can hear me.â€
I am the voice in darkness. I am the words written in the sky by the wings of birds. I I I I am oracle
“No more. Finished.â€
I I am the road you trod. I am not finished. I have no horizon
“Let me go. Let me be forgotten.â€
I deny it. Remember
“Ah.â€
I am the light that always returns. I am the sun the sun the sun
“My son. I remember. Our son.â€