When I say this you must imagine
it to be a prayer-
None but you have the right to speak
with any integrity
upon the matter of love
and in honor of your name alone
do I spill libations
For what is love, if not intimacy
if not appreciation
if not understanding
And what, therefore, is pain
if not these things, if not art?
And if you are feared, it is only by those
who are afraid of sensation-
I am prepared to deem this fear of living-
dust clogging the hearts of those
who should suck the honey of existence
and yet rot clinging to the vine.
There are sinews in your art,
for you wake the dead.
and there is delicacy in matter
for you help the blind to see
by redefining light- there is finery
in the skins you wear
like the lace of petticoats on women
who can no longer feel the blood in their veins.
We may yet feel it for them.
And if god is found in detail
then we will force him down by splitting atoms
we will make him between the fibers of slick muscle
and burn him into flesh
we will carve his name with needles in the mirrors of our eyes
and pin him to the anatomy of man
divine the secrets of existence by the revelation of butchery.
Our knives are thin
and what profundity can be discovered in the depths of
the mundane we will pry out with kindness and with precision.
We can remake the world in our image
one incision at a time.
And that is what it means to be a god.