Chaos Spoon
The figures made the clock work
or were made of clockwork
themselves on a flat plate desert
burnt umber with hunger
where anaplasia is served
with a big chaos spoon.
Fried eggs through the window
shells crushed to dust:
They knew the time
They built the place
where the Handmaid of Fire
and the Blinded Face
kiss with the long drawn
howl of Fate under a black-holed sun
on a scoured afternoon in July.
Those who live by the Lie
will die by the gun, but not before
they make us a bed,
too hard, too long
in the dreamkiller's cell
feed us rotten red meat
from a toxic pail, pour us
too much dry air from
the poison well. It's a nightmare in time
to lose the door, but it's better by far
to have a dead fire than to make
the world burn for a dime.
~August 2016
posted for real toads
Challenge: Fireblossom Friday
I only wish ALL of this was a dream.
I only wish ALL of this was a dream.
Optional Musical Accompaniment
anaplasia : n.Reversion of cells to an immature or a less differentiated form, as occurs in most malignant tumors.
~The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical DictionaryCopyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Image:The Meeting of the Illusion and the Arrested Moment - Fried Eggs Presented in a Spoon, 1932, by Salvidor Dali Fair Use via wikiart-org
This hits the truth bell with a sledgehammer and lets it ring. Who are these people, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI will echo Mama in saying this piece hits hard - especially when read while listening to Hendrix (which helps to process it) -- your dreamkiller is indeed a nightmare, but sometimes we need those in order to wake up. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteWell stated. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteSo many amazing characters in this piece - the Handmaid of Fire and the Blinded Face, then the closing stanza with its dreamkiller's cell and the poisoned well. This dream is like a dark fantasy novel - amazing imagery, Hedge.
ReplyDeletelove the line, "burnt umber with hunger"
ReplyDeleteThere must be some kind of way out of here....
ReplyDeleteIf you find it, send up a flare.
This is nightmare truth. We burn on the head of a dime. Who will buy the 1%'s crap when the little man is dead?
ReplyDeleteYou made me shiver, though sometimes I would realize that reality is worse... great images that makes me shudder.
ReplyDeleteTo me a person's psyche is like a bottomless well, and the deeper one goes the more frightening are the things to be found there. You never hesitate to delve deeply, and that is why your dreamscapes are always as chilling as they are a revelation to me.
ReplyDeleteThe first stanza made me think of Salvador Dali - wonderful imagery and I love the big chaos spoon. It's kind of how I feel when I'm not dreaming.
ReplyDelete"Those who live by the Lie
ReplyDeletewill die by the gun" ... and it never ends!
I wish that, too.
ReplyDelete