ritual Vesta...

 'Las Meninas', by Diego Velázquez

   ritual Vesta


scrubbing stain 
like lady macbeth 
thou art 
an air breathing 
scream stream 
I tell her 
I am accepting 
subtle accumulation of filth 
as my own cultural patina 

I was going to be 
a polemic algorithm 
a usage disorder 
chaos and tidy 
wanting a series 
of interludes with
random wild asparagus 
and other stalk variant nutrients 

a dirty legume 
a room view womb 
the dust wind rain mud 
a broom neatly 
inside the door 
clouds and windows
to the right 
or to the left 
the clefts, cleaves  
and divides 
are all vines 
of some kind

you'll look back 
someday in a future 
not yet passed 
and seed imagery 
into your needs 
you might see 
even your humanity 
had left town 
some time back 
near when 
postal delivery 
became sporadic 
a now and then 
of people read more 
when wanting 
electric lives again 

circled upon the white hem 
she wore what had been 
at best: rust, dirt, 
active entropy 
and inert gasses
she had been cursed 
with collecting evermore

she is constant motion 
sometimes slowing 
yet never ceasing 
time she says
begs ash cover-shines 
hiding eyes in creases 
a soul for song 
she says, makes one 
forget melody 
but remember scent

afterglow is 
painting what 
there was always...

we document seasons 
and souls as bones and...

the empty mouths to feed 
a hearth will spit fire
and whisper night
back to morning's roar 
there is always 
going to be 
a yesterday 
waiting to be 
wanted by
an empty 
mouth to feed

EJR ©