No Need
No need to excavate the mine or the stream.
Gems and precious metals have been placed on the
necks of chosen paramours.
No need to reap treasures of cradled civilizations
or whittle the rot from gold.
Where relics reside they are wasted to clay in their
own sedimentary dust.
No need to scale star registers or conquer icy peaks.
Imagination's wide leaps catch the passion of your
intermittent ascent and decay.
No need to document the record of your absinthe and
antitheses in its rank array.
The boatman who poles the black river with his mutant
dog has taken the measure of your lust.
No need to salvage trestles for a monumental image
that will be maimed by survivors.
No need to conjure lizards from the mouths of quail.
No need to follow the mule's hard reins to enlightenment.
Wherein lie dream realizations already framed.
No need to hazard storms of memory and feel light crackle
in your veins.
Time's shadow is a cloth you rub between your fingers to
fix its texture and density in your brain.
No need to cast a legend from the toss of hair and bone.
Or exhume the stony corpse once it has been graven.
(Appeared in The Nightmare Collection, Dark Regions Press, 2008)