CruciformLast night I felt fire
inhabited my chest
my breasts burned as if they had caught a heavy sickness
I tore my clothes off and feeling the tile beneath my feet I stood
feeling prickling across my hot skin
watching the electric storm rake dark sky
wondering my part in anything if at all
or why
some days we feel such clamouring disturbance
deep in ourselves as if someone else
is trying to get out or some displacement, some wrong
as yet unfound pulls our string
what is the mix of this temperament and how
do we stay still when everything is at once uneasy and fraught
an inner lament bound with wire
the hairs on my arms standing up
watching time spin over head
I couldn’t concentrate or think
it was as if all higher function were lost
returning me to who I was
in instinct
crouching naked beneath lightning
like a feral being
nothing in my mind except a longing
to tear through the artifice
strip myself of those conscious things
fear and routine, habits and awareness
I longed to return to that
stark undimmed polar
of reaction and gut
shaping my response
who needs all the books and learning
let us stand once more
stark against thunder
and roar
sate our anxieties and the ever-present woes of our world
on the savagery of relenting
giving over our human skin
hanging it on the post
dropping our keys and footprints
to streak instinctive and returned to wild
across the green
blurring with rain and rush of leaves
gone from our homes
the doors stand
open
and soon
all is wet
all is calm
In claiming my savagery
I find peace