what shall i call you

when they come to kill us?

mercy's not in their verbiage

manifest destiny in our bones

before our minds open toward the seas

we must be victims of systemic fright

failed, flailed, decrepit like older states

like the thieves of this nation

ruling on the periphery of fright

we must smell sin's putrid odor

stare into the coffins of our rotting dead

taste their blood dried upon our lips

upend God who's stretched across the Vine

as we mummify our gods

at the collapse of our funds

we may see the limits of license

with capital's gold dragged to it's grave

we sill have joined the human race

cursing our gods for the abandonment of us

trapped in the cage of arrogant thrusts

affections submerged 'neath desolate loves

people wasted on the boasts of leaders

brain-washed, herded before whimsical crowds

mauling our selves in the cesspools of wants

selling our souls as advertisement's prod

having thrown our selves into failed visions of life

war's being televised with cocktails on tap

setups and snackables before din-din is served

we'll die delighted swallowing olives without ice

but before we hoist another drink

you never offered to tell us your name

*Reflections of Jean Sulivan:

  -The fundamental insight of the Bible...is that the invisible can speak only by means of the perceptible;....only theology attempts to distinguish faith, love and action, a distinction that has no foundation in Scripture.

  -A choice has to be made between ideology and the primacy of word/poem/action.  The former is a doctrinal system that transforms what should be an interior birth into a categorical imperative: this is what you ought to think, believe, say.  In this way the concrete human being is made subordinate to the idea, and we make someone a slave while telling her that she is free.  By killing all creativity, one falls into sterile repetition, which produces both sadness and disaffection.  I know what I'm talking about; I, too, played this game in all sincerity.  Don't forget: I cooperated in this conditioning process after undergoing it myself.

  -It's not a question of rejecting reason,  I am well aware of the fecundity of the "concept", which has made it possible for humans to dominate the earth.  Without it we would have neither the sciences nor progress and modern conveniences.  So what?  We wouldn't have pollution or atom bombs either. But let's have a truce with hypocrisy; it's not a matter of either dreaming or scorning.  We are part of the West; it would be childish to forget that fact.  But let reason stay in its place.  Some morning I'll try to explain why it seems to me that in the spiritual order it's appropriate to go beyond reason by means of reason.