Picture That Keeps Falling

Picture That Keeps Falling
© Surazeus
2024 09 01

Your picture that keeps falling off the wall 
refuses to explain why we all die, 
so I run with the butterfly of hope 
to climb high mountain of the laughing skull 
where refugees from war gather at dawn 
to play chess and recite weird poetry. 

You give me apple that fell from the tree 
which turns into the scarlet dragon egg 
from which my spirit rises on wild wings 
so I can see world labyrinth below 
which I map in our new national myth 
that celebrates our superior state. 

We stop on signless road to anywhere 
and stare at green sun smoking in foul smog 
to understand lamentation of trains 
which carry orphans to the Promised Land 
where they raise children who pray in the church 
to the plastic king who floats in the clouds. 

Though I send scrolls of riddles to the clown 
who stands guard at the gates to paradise, 
he always rejects my salacious jokes 
as too serious to formulate fake faith 
which provides living guide for the new age 
when people celebrate our fall from grace. 

The rocket that keeps walking on sand dunes 
argues with the black-feathered swan of fear 
about how our bodies conjugate souls 
as emanations from our dreamless brains 
so mortal humans think they will not die 
though our flesh crumbles to dust in the wind. 

This twice daily anxiety attack 
is brought to you by the company that sells 
magic formulas in bottles of faith 
that will restore the spirit of your heart 
after Fate shatters your dreams with despair 
so you tend your garden and bake fruit pies. 

Our safe homes are cages of solitude 
for which we keep the keys of secret faith 
while she talks with her mother on the phone 
who lives on the other side of the world 
as if they dwell in the same universe 
which sloshes oil in blood veins of my brain. 

Each poet reciting verses on stage 
is convinced they are the Prophet of God 
who speaks with personal voice of the land 
so the planet vibrates with intense spells 
that echo in the waste land of the mind 
where I walk alone on the signless road.