By: t.p. Luce
En Passant (‘Deus Vult’)
later that day
it occurred to me
that perhaps
after the Vikings
came to Lindisfarne
to set things right
showing us
how things move
we were introduced to
the best way
a red pepper
can be crushed into a tongue
that inequity
in the form of blood
poured from saints
as recompense
would, in reverse
be played out again
some two thousand plus years later
from a cell in Birmingham
that time, on paper
which could just as well
have been in Norse
as in English
(they lead their armies
he led his)
but for the queen
but for Christ
but for Allah
the subtext of which
adds enough lime
to corner any conversation
as they demand their subjects
give of their lives
for this cause or that
and many do so,
gladly
while in the plain world
a hero’s tale
to simplify the complex heritage
of man and power
that thirsty magnetism
crying out
only to be resisted
by the last choice we have
& for what??
the will of Zeus?
her majesty’s Royal Navy?
God save the Queen
God Bless America
For the honor of King Henry and his claims
For Troy
For Helen
For Union
States’ Rights
no taxation without representation
For the Greater Glory of God
For Allah
Earlier that day
I found my thoughts preempted
by an American soldier
full framed in my television
airport homecoming
under his own power
dressed in full
both arms, both legs
not in a wheel chair
not in a pine box
when the cameras turned
someone handed him
an American flag
which he wrapped around himself,
and bleated out
‘God bless America
the greatest country in the world’.
As my mind passed by
the flag as dreamcoat
sweetened to a jacket of C-4
tornado
it all happens so quick
surrounded
torn about
floating on air
not knowing up from down
or left from right
cut loose from the earth
gravity irrelevant
all objects becoming one terror
hot and cold together make hot and cold apart
being hit from all sides
losing sight,
only seeing pinholes and cannon balls
darkness as the presence of all color
and the absence of light, no color
the only sense of balance
is through clinched fists and string inside the mind
grounding you like a mighty cable
losing air
losing all things dear on earth
losing life
then - gaining the absent light
seeing now new things unseen before
learning of all things dear in life - - is the dream
the dream too grand to destroy by awakening
holding on to this coma that shows that life is not the thing
but rather death is the thing,
long and continuous
a place not of mourning
but of reflection
in which life is just a flash
Louisiana native t.p. Luce, is a photographer and poet. He graduated from New York University with a B.A in History and a B.F.A in Photography in 1988. In 2004, his first poetry/photography narrative was published as thaBloc: words, photographs and baltimore city in black, white and gray, and received numerous awards. In 2007, t.p. was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to compose an exhibition of thaBloc. t.p’s photographs are in the permanent collections at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Baltimore Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institute and the Lewis Museum.
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