Ah! Contender for a contested territory
The weight of my gear sours coursing norepinephrine
Organs twisting with the pulse
You waken death in my heart, give life to my song
Contender: pardon not the body, which fears nothing, but the soul
Frenzy amped into crushing cunts in houses squares schoolyards
Boots forced through the viscous
A torpor afterward, that unfathomable life-weariness
Heaven, earth, and wind fall silent
Nights, contender, we grieve all our conquests
Die from a desire for the victory
We don’t await catharsis, just the next patrol into territory of uncompensated delirium
A thousand times I die and a thousand I am born
Some lines of this poem were taken from Claudio Monteverdi’s Book 8 of madrigals, Madrigali guerrieri et amorosi, 1638.
This poem was published in The Decadent Review.
Andy Oram
November 9, 2019