(El Dios Es El Decaimiento)
Cette obscurité régulière semblait
enfin soumise à des lois précises
Jean Paulham
God is the decay
between evolution and imagination
man and minutiae
the cosmic treason
of whatever made us
master of the wolves
but slaves to passion:
full of facts yet ignorant
fawning to living yet hostile to life
present for the curse
but absent from the blessing
no longer savage nor immortal
bread bitter
in endless mouths:
god is red faced
a miracle of common assent
angels behind his eyes
hearts beneath his heels
mortgaged to the chin in faith
lifted from the dust
new in ancient fate.
Fernand Roqueplan writes that he is a combat veteran, a medically retired Marine, with a 50% service-connected disability rating from theVeterans Administration. He works physical therapy, as an interpreter for social services and, seasonally, as a steelhead fishing guide. Fernand has been published in the Manhattan Review, Many Mountains Moving, Indiana Review, Revista/Review Interamericana, Wisconsin Review, Southern Humanities Review, and Borderlands.