Saturday 19 November 2016

Shanghaied (cinquains)

In 2012 one set out on a quest
against a backdrop of declining West,
Eurasian integration, Shanghai Pact’s
emergence from the same & all the rest,
positioning for temporary pax

& then for war to break the nation-state.
Of course, one did expect a longer wait
before the Russians & the Chinese warmed
relations, but the Ukraine crisis stormed
past; so, one watched it all accelerate,

ignored just-paying-off-my-mortgage men
disgustedly, passed Chinese 3 & then
began to study Russian for a change
while inwardly convicted of one’s sin.
One realizes that this must all sound strange,

but all of it occurred exactly so.
One ceased to sleep around with men. Although
that was 9 months before the Day Star’s rise,
He sometimes lightens us before we know.
He watches us with 7 flying eyes.

The Day Star lightens the horizon first,
perhaps because one might have feared the worst,
& one is still not sure quite what to make
of Him, considering He means to break
us! but the textbook says He quenches thirst.

The textbook says so very many things.
For instance, there are ladies with stork wings
who carry a lead-shielded harlot far
away & plant her in a fresh Shinar.
Chimeras even torment with their stings,

though one is still unsure why there’s a goat
fused to the Neo-Hittite one. I note
that the most controversial two words
-- yom & aionos -- bookend what He wrote.
I wonder when our Lord will feed the birds.