Sunday, December 15, 2024

City Of The Burning Book

City Of The Burning Book
© Surazeus
2024 12 15

The old wizard bound to the chestnut tree 
always knows when the revolution flares 
from social conflict in the hearts of men 
who fight against their oppressors with sermons 
that blast cathedrals into theaters 
where clowns play politicians filled with greed. 

Far away from vices of Babylon 
the wandering Preacher with the Burning Book 
who leads his family in the wagon train 
founds New Avalon in the wilderness 
to worship spirit of the universe 
embodied by the Mother and her Son. 

The Preacher builds vast maze of singing doors 
where every room has mirrors on white walls 
reflecting secret desires in mute hearts 
of people who walk beside nameless ghosts 
across the waste land to find Wonderland 
where they carve masks to wear from weeping trees. 

The Preacher who rebels against the Tyrant 
becomes the Tyrant ruling Wonderland, 
demanding obedience to divine laws 
he sees while bathing in the waterfall 
till his grandson the Prophet of New Faith 
overthrows him and crowns himself the King. 

Every city the Prophet builds on skulls 
of dead gods, once worshipped by his ancestors, 
grows vast and prosperous from labor of workers 
whose children dismantle grand palaces 
and drive their cars into the wilderness 
where cities they build are erased by wind. 

The Prophet gives his son the Pen of Truth 
to write new scripture for his world religion, 
but he glues feather quills on wooden wings 
and leaps from Tower of Rapunzel at dawn 
to fly above the sprawling maze of myths 
so he can map the way to paradise. 

The Jester who flies above maze of myths, 
to honor his freedom from Gravity, 
maps the ever-changing network of roads 
which have different names every seven days 
so people always know where they should be 
but get lost going where they want to be. 

The vast city built on the Burning Book 
transforms the bones of gods into fruit trees 
who dress in blue-gray suits with rainbow ties 
to write computer programs in dream code 
till the Hacker who follows the White Rabbit 
frees the Wizard bound to the chestnut tree. 


1 comment:

  1. Orpheus publishes map of the City of the Burning Book in the global atlas of Utopias that never exist outside the fantasies of boys reading comic books as holy scriptures.

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