ON THE BIRTH OF WILD THINGS



Today in the sauce thick heat you gave birth,
though
you were ancient past bearing, a
withered land
with no water, all rocks and stones
and you were cousin of the Virgin
twice virgined over, three times as old
you brought into this earth the prophet
all covered in moss
all wild eyed and full of locust
and honey
and his lungs screamed prepare the way
and his foot thumped out to herald
resurrection
and out of the protection of that
which once was
barren, all covered in vines and
tendrils he came
the Greenest of Men, who carried
his own head in his hands
and in his mouth, the sword of
his own destruction
and when you see him at the Jordan
then he is our destruction
when you see him calling you into
the water
then he is your induction to the
little death
the fire death and the water death
and the death of all that held you
and when he comes, calling,
behold the Lamb
then you know he is the Wild Thing
and you are the Wild Thing
and what he brings in his camel
hair coat
is the end of all stale safety