Rage

A Work in Progress
36

The arc of this work in progress began pre-war 

that first World War with archetypal couples

Aldington and H.D. Ariadne and Bacchus/Dionysius

curved to include Catullus and Lesbia

passed a milestone, Ezra’s death

then found itself a century later poised

on the brink of a third world war

brought on when Empires collide

Rage

of bloodied gums

of teeth wrenched out

though you reduce them to soft muzzles

no different from your dogs

the pent-up fury of history prepares

a sweeter kiss, prepares a permissive caress

an ejaculated moment

& vaster is the emptiness of the soul without boundaries

more unanswerable those questions Helen strip-teased him with 

*

Hero leading a crowd

his banner thrust forward

his pose: bare forearmed

self-conscious

so, heroes strain forward

held back by vanity

a momentary failing

that painters cannot color in

*

the abacus was broken           lay on a building site

its once bright words bent & rusty

while the taxman counted souls on a computer

binary one & binary zero

Donal sat on a bollard with a morse key between his thighs

tapped out three dashes, three dots, three dashes, three dots

the abacus was broken

beads fell from its wire

three red ones three blue ones

each fell from the wire

came to rest

equilibrium

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                         2025