We Were All Crazy Once

A swath of skin
Stripped from my son
Winds down the spiral of centuries
Like a serpent shedding it's skin.
A double-helix sidewinder
Pulled by the tides,
Funneling through stone gates,
Over city walls, under bridges,
Past ziggurats swimming
In the moon's cold, blue-green light.
At the crossroads, a stone phallus
Blesses lovers in it's shadow.
The sweet, bloated sun
Drips honey on golden cobblestones.
Wandering in the desert,
Goat-horns and thistle
Reveal the secrets of fire and architecture.
Little boys are snatched from their mother's wombs
And suckled at the hairy breasts of old men.
A boy and a girl, fused at the groin,
Are crushed like wheat for bread
To feed the soul of the village.
The sephiroth burn in the sky
Like firebrands at summer solstice.
The tree of life thrusts up through the mud
And branches out, spanning the worlds.
A thousand generations
Come bubbling to the surface.

We were all crazy once.
We made love in brambles,
Used thorn bushes for beds.
We were pine trees,
Green fire burning through winter white.
We were flowers, sleeping underground,
Returning every spring with new colors.
We stood at the navel of the world
And conversed with gods and goddesses.
Now we sit empty in silent football stadiums,
Crying out sporadically,
Not really expecting an answer.

David Aronson