subtext

• •

16: hubris babble

“You built your tower strong and tall
Can’t you see it’s got to fall some day”
                           –Townes Van Zant
Lightning’s flash and crack
against stone portends a fall.
Atop a promontory crag,
I’m lost in my storm surge;
the sea waves clash about me
like arabesques of smoke
rising above a funereal pyre:
my pyre—so even amidst my destruction,
I cling like drowning sailors to my hubris
in hope I can save something of myself.

(from a work in progress: “Arcana,” November 12, 2013)