They do not erect statues, temples, and altars; they deem anyone who does these things a fool, and they feel this way, I presume, because […] they do not believe that the gods have human qualities.
—Herodotus1
i.
Let us be gods and laugh at our Selves, fashioned • in the image of someone else, fissures in the marble • cracking up as we tell what no one wants divulged, • that this is a myth, life does not exist, it’s • a concept we permit to tag along with us like • an ally, to touch a consecrated wound with filthy fingertips, • you’re only the personification of a symbol, a god in • a body is an idol, a soliloquizing deity whose self-creation • •
ii.
goes unwitnessed by the masses unless it is self-effacing (its • breakdown self-inflicted), heart beating like an Aleph, life-death, life-death (can • you hear it?), each bead of sweat forming an alphabet • of flesh, you’re born as soon as you realize you • exist, breaking open a shell you dressed your Self in, • beware what you fill your head with, words are powerful • and ideas can do damage (language is dangerous), what I • want to do to you is beyond thought but not • •
iii.
without reason, we are a species limited to the capacity • of our own need, man is an ape burying himself • in a hole the shape of another mistake’s creation, don’t • call this punishment our getting even, it’s fate, read in • my translation of your body, from relic to reliquary, a • new understanding of faith, I am my own overflowing whenever • I take a drink of the things you think but • never say, it’s time to speak them and be animated.
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1Herodotus, “Persia: Persian religious beliefs and customs”, [Book] 1[, Chapter] 131[, Section] 1, in “Persia: The Life Story of Cyrus” of “Book I” in The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories: A New Translation by Andrea L. Purvis with Maps, Annotations, Appendices, and Encyclopedic Index: Edited by Robert B. Strassler: With an Introduction by Rosalind Thomas, published at New York by Anchor Books in 2009; page 71.
Jono Borden 