♉︎ Visiting the Interior of the Earth

          V · isita¹

sadomasochistic
and domesticated
death has seized my father
its right hand teaching him miracles
his limbs lifting light
as leaves file forth
eager for flight
peeling off like boiled muscles
shells from out of which
souls slip
buttered gifts
seas of shipments

          I · nteriora²

since gods cannot live
off offerings alone
nor fire off smoke
nor bones off burns
his left arm curled in tight
turns away meal-questing worms
sizing up with needle-narrow eyes
his corpse crematorium
workers slide inside
a yawning furnace
breaking before dawn
what cleft knuckles

          T · erræ³

clenched fists
troubled his spirit
on the edge of breath
unable to speak
unprepared to pray
and refusing to be humble
though glazed peppered glares
spray final V.I.T.R.I.O.L.
attitude the last
monument of a man’s
life to fall
my palm in his

                                        ♎︎ In the Chamber of Reflection

          R · ectificando⁴

in some lost card catalogued
by debt collectors
assessing the resale
of our shares of the same
scattered mind
against its purchase price
foreclosing open files
transcripts and drafts
of old calls I never placed
growing cold
in basket cases
along with leftovers

          I · nvenies⁵

from another time
sharing madness we sift
without a guide
blind to what our
time here binds
since he fell before
I could tell him how
hard it is still
being so far
apart now that we
both know where
all the scraps go

          O · ccvltvm⁶

calling the tragedies
and traumas only
scrapes taking it in
stride without talking
together we stumble
through hell
greeting each other
two storms
uncertain if whether
what haze we swell
is pregnant with pause
long enough or

          L · apidem⁷

bombshells of love
we tell our selves
will heal what we call
injustice this killing
of him no one else
cares about or wants
to resurrect but if I bury his
memory will I grow up
or will I catch it this
madness from our ancestors
received this demon’s gift
a disease feeding their machine?

__________
¹Basilius Valentinus [Basil Valentine], “Visit the innermost parts of the earth; and by setting things right, you will find the hidden stone[,]” translated from the Latin by Dennis William Hauck in “Part 2: Applying the Emerald Formula, Chapter 10: Seven Steps to Transformation” of The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation, New York: Penguin/Arkana, 1999; page 168. Written in 1413 or 1493 and first published as “Tabvla Smaragdina Hermetis. Verba Secretorvm Hermetis [sic, From the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. The Words of the Secrets of Hermes]” in Azoth, Siue Avreliæ Occvltæ Philosophorvm, Materiam Primam, et Decantatvm illum Lapidem Philosophorvm filiis Hermetis solide, perspicue & dilucide explicantes, Per Ænigma Philosophicum, Colloquium Parabolicum, Tabulam Smaragdinam Hermetis, Symbola, Parabolas & Figuras Saturni, F. Basilii Vicentini. M. Georgio Beato Fr. Interprete [sic, Azoth; or, the secret Aureliæ of the Philosophers, faithfully and clearly explaining the First Matter, and the famous Stone of the Philosophers, unto the sons of Hermes, by way of a Philosophical Enigma, parabolic colloquy, the Smaragdine Table of Hermes, and the Saturnian Parables and Figures of Frater Basil Valentine. Interpreted by M. Georg Beatus], Francofvrti [sic, Francofurti ad Mœnum; Frankfurt am Main:] Typis ac sumptibus Ioannis Bringeri [With the types and at the expense of Johann Bringer], M. DC. XIII. [sic, 1613]; page 52: “[V.I.T.R.I.O.L.:] Visita Interiora Terræ Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem[.]”
²Ibid.
³Ibid.
⁴Ibid.
⁵Ibid.
⁶Ibid.
⁷Ibid.