Sunday, May 7, 2017

Poem 81: The New Tragedy


cruel chamelion-eyed king
living in the moment
while feral cats devour
the hands and feet of his children
by which we mean all his subjects
but also including his natural
and unnatural children
if he has any
he really can’t remember

the Master of Them that Know
would look askance
at our tragedy, certainly
it’s too weird
he would say, in Greek,
'That’s just too weird'

but we are, right now, at this very mo-
ment
writing the unconceived
and uncaused final chapter
of his very own Poetics

encompassing conditions unthinkable
where there is any memory
of what is tragedy


these are things which could only hatch
in a sixth, or in a seventh act
and which in all future history
no theory shall ever subtract


Now Athenians are silent
Now Dionysos is silent
and on Olympos, the Olympian gods
are incapacitated



But other gods, ones plunged
anciently in darkness--
Hell yes, they say
paint your faces

get Aechylus up

it is time

we’re going









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