Babylon, Beguiled

Here unto us

Is Babylon beguiled

Short flat hills

With no side to side

Rocky red ties
On serious men

And blue and green tiles

On modern kitchens

Here are your golden rulers
Here are your silver spoons

Here are your inches and yards

And berry-black quotation marks

Here are your Oxford commas

And your tinsel decorations
And your tin horns

Nevertheless a rainstorm

Nevertheless some loss

What's your pain
Compared to the other

What does it mean?

What does it cost?

Whipped to force

By fires undone

Coax a wild dog

From the fields and forests

Teach him to fetch

And play

And bark

What do you know
About light
And dark?

Anything can happen here

This is Babylon

Here, there is no magic

That is not ordinary magic

There are no tricks

Or turns

Or twists

That lie for smiles

The way our older magic would

These are new hills

No mountains

New darkness

No lantern light

New scripture

No religion

This is not a new life

This is not a given

This is nothing where--

Scars are healed

And pain goes numb

You are not here to be loved

You are not here

To be

Forgiven

You are here for an average Paradise

A satisfying view

Of the Elysian landscape

The Shangri-la horizon

The Heaven that dares not

Speak for clouds

Nothing here remarks

On your falling down transgressions

Nothing here reminds you

Nothing calls your name

Wake up

Be glad

Drink coffee

Find grass that needs mowing

And send for your wild dog

Now tamed

Not the same

But adjustable

Enjoyable

Liveable

And liable

To lull you

Into fragile silence

And alabaster

Conversation

A day will assemble

When gardens will grow

And children will age

And life will be cruel

And natural

All at once

You’ll run towards

What you remember

But nothing will be there

Just the tracks

Of your journey

Leading away

Leading and misleading

Telling you stories

That sound like lies

Telling you

To call this place

Something it’s not

Beguiling you

While you open your eyes

Even wider

Hoping the hypnotism

Never wears off

Hoping you feel this way

Which is no way

And nowhere

You say

Forever

And mean

Amen

You say

Forever

And you say it

Again