The Second Coming
I
This morning I stood upon a dead man
And the earth groaned
The deаd аnd the earth are one
(Earth, enrich yourself with our death)
Through its breаthing
I recognize the vapours of the man
I stood upon
(Before you destroy the world
Listen to your heaves
They will save you)
II
When the dead rise
Struggling for breath
Will the earth be emptied?
Will I then see my father
The-only-one-without-a-navel?
III
This is not the rustling of leaves
But the dead spreading rumours
And those are not furrows
But fresh wounds
Decay quickened by lime
We sit down and eat the dead
Bones do not stick in the throat
But bullets they were awarded
Or a piece of knife rusted by blood
Instead of buds nipples blossom in spring
Nipples of women who screamed
And died during their orgasms
IV
The crypts will yawn like empty warehouses
The tombs will open like large calyxes
Of flowers no longer carnivorous
The icons will verily become saints and apostles
The churches will crumble
And in their dust the barefooted Christ will joyfully splash
(Who says I am for chaos?
So long as the laws get broken)
Hot roots but rough arteries
Burst through rock
Transforming it into another force
V
The dead will come off the foundations
The immured structures collapse
VI
When spiders lower themselves from the sky
I, the little doubter, will recognize that man
And he will recognize me
By the original icon I have carried around
translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra