THE GARDEN OF DELIGHTS

by Gay Reiser Cannon
(Port Aransas, TX)

Wanton desires fulfilled
I can now your pallid face renounce.
I drink deep from you and fuse you to me--
Blood cell for blood cell.

Fire; heat; seething urge
Explored in a summer of desire.
Burning with vice
I refuse to be captured by cause.

An actor on the stage you built
I live life's eternal farce;
Feeling those heated bodies
Smother me, I cry,

I am in heaven or hell
Doubt becomes my nemesis--
Love is my demon;
Lust, the fire.

Burning demons circle me
Charming creatures
Enticing, debauching me.
What sweetness can this be?

Jesus and Satan alike,
Two heads on one coin."
Set it in gyre
Examine its essential beauty.

And you begin to dance
An affected movement
At once basic and condemning
Suggesting rhythmic redemption.

You bestow on me your celestial thread
Then I watch you dizzily fall.
I reach out my spirit for you
Greedier than my hands.

Complacent that if you're lost
Or you become discrete
That I have feasted
Securing all I need.

Knowing depravity
I cast it off
And watch nature's fire
Burn brilliant as the sun.

Luscious honey thick
The summer hangs pendulously
Richly fruited--
A summer of death.

I closet in coolness
Stripped of my innocence
Terrified of life
Afraid to love death.

Procured in towering gloom
And pricked by grief's ivory rose,
I retrieve your shadow
Cast by the icy moon.

Falling prostrate before me,
You scream
"Bring forth your idol
Set it alight and I will at last worship it!"

Ruined, I'm left to wait
In darkened woods
By silent stones near tarnished pools
While lightning strikes the night.

And I dream again
That I perish in a fruitless land
I slash myself
Piercing my side; drinking my blood.

Becoming neither phantom nor sylph
Believing in water
I implore you, my Lord
Just one cool drop.

I devour what I need
Flaming tongues quench my thirst
I now sense no vertigo
Nor ascent to grace.

From you came the hermetic root,
Its source; I feel the rush of wings
And am saved by a sacred essence
In angel's dreams.

I know your joy
I found your shame.
I consumed your love
I changed your name.

In Mephistophelian frenzy
I spin exultantly
Adoring the furor
In my flight to Paradise.

© Gay Reiser Cannon All Rights Reserved