1. Pavo
Somewhere
along the road
that leads down to the lake of fire,
the third peacock on the left
has had his way with you:
the blind peacock,
white in the moonlight
white as a moonbeam
(and just as elusive:
Another twister
trickster god,
speaking out of the whirlwind);
And he asks you,
And you drink.
2. The Kingfisher and the Feathered Serpent
And you wake up
Alone in the darkness
with a broken heart
in the midst of your life,
and you don't know the way.
And you stumble blindly,
feeling
in the blackness
for the longing he promised you.
My head aches, min chertz brennt,
and somewhere
down there
is the river of fire;
and yet
though you've lost your way
and everything else you had,
it feels like the way out:
so you follow the Fisher King
who might be ahead of you.
3. Interlude: Caius/Keas/Geesekeys
A bird
like you tried to build a hawk out of parrot parts
reading instructions in Greek
that will turn out to be the manual
for crows.
I wish I could meet one.
She might claw my eyes out again,
but she might tell me a river
that flows to the truth.
4. Bennu
And so
after you have slept with the King of the Salamanders
(you tried to glue
the shards of yourself back
together;
some you leave behind)
the pieces will rejoin
welded together in the fire.
You emerge
Plumage singed, like sackcloth,
streaked with ashes
that fall from your eyes.
The mourning will not frighten you
nevermore.