[Andrei Tarkovsky was a Russian filmmaker who, after making only seven films (mostly under a dissaproving Soviet system), died of cancer in 1986. His mother was a painter and his father was a notable Russian poet. Tarkovsky, little known by the American public, is considered to be among the most important artists of the twentieth century.]
a shadow shaking lightning bolts
I forget myself
the animated corpse looks like my reflection
guts smeared across the paper
in neatly printed rows
I think of you
the cover of your book ripped off
stripped away, digested
the body laid bare
resting in my hands
trembling with you
your complaints
your ruminations
your vocation
(a curse upon your house)
your painful open eyes
and the banality of turning pages
there is an image amongst the relics:
living beneath the surface
slender blades undulating
(such lovely serpents)
an abstracted shaman
of true things
(or talisman of desire)
is this image you?
veritas
verisimilitude
a framed soul breathing
fleeting
heart beating singular
and universal
(connotations thick as ashes)
you must have ached
hands and feet cut off
the collective soil waiting
darkness watching every move
you must have burned
in love and anger
(before the stamp of ignorance)
smoke and mist
indistinguishable
filling the screen
with supplications
pagan streams baptizing
the fears of the righteous
witches and soldiers giving utterance
and where were you?
writing with light
(the master praying for salvation)
and I see you clearly now
writing with light
a world of ghosts
(February 1999)
