Vertigo Park and Other Tall Tales (14 page)

Antipodes united—

They must have used a Lab—

The polar Host has lighted—

The Word—a frozen Slab.

My heart could not accelerate—

It was weighed down by Fact.

Mere blood lacks petrol’s octane

For speed’s triumphal act.

The dead lie still while angels race;

The slow know death in life.

Velocity is Caesar—

It conquers like a knife.

I strove, in boots and bootless,

And neither made me fly.

Since Providence does not provide,

Then Commerce may comply.

This steed leaps from the foundry,

A stallion told in steel,

Exultant as the arrow

That soars above the Real.

Voracious clockwork panther,

Amnesiac in its climb,

It heedless fells the highway,

Remorseless—as Time.

Because Sleep tarried when I called,

And care gnawed at the walls,

I learned a faith in Chemistry,

The Djinn that answers calls.

Its powders spread like snowfall

Or all-obscuring sand,

Throughout the secret acres,

To still the fevered land.

The mob of thoughts disperses,

The wrenching pistons cease.

The greatest dream—is Dreamlessness—

The blizzard’s whitening peace.

False robes of absolution,

Imposter’s crown of rest—

The comfort of the blessed—here—

Conferred on the Unblessed.