Novelle Reaction

Topped off glass of red wine,
combined with empty stomach:
One tripped out reaction poem.
Why such large glasses for wine?

Sabotage...

Perhaps one more glass, and
it will all start to make sense
hmmm, one more glass...
Will I see through author's eyes?

Will I any longer care?
Hmmm, one more glass...
I really don't want to care
Too red mouth, weeping

Soul shutters; wails into cold of dark

Must take action!
Empty…as is the end of the world,
extinct, grown meaningless.
And void, void, void.
Go further, and you are lost.

Action will be taken!
Darkness has a horrible voice.
No escape; it overwhelms.
Assails you with memory,

Of the murder committed yesterday
Foreknowledge of murder to commit

Action ought to have been taken.
Memories press up an internal cry:
Unheard fish-cry of solitary animal,
overwhelmed by it’s own sea.  Muffled.

A face tearing cry; well past danger,
makes hollow face full of fear,
terrifies others. Dreadful silent darkness.

Such action should have been taken.
Mounts like a flood and rushes on,
dark-winged, threatening, like breakers
hisses wickedly, like foam. Release?

We’ve had some action...
Standing at the end of the world,
merciless light, filled with naked grief.
Blackest black of darkness. Cold.

What action? Impossible…
Faces are bleeding, bleeding from mouths.
Hands hold hand-grenades; hand grasps me
Groan; steel helmet falls, an eye breaks

Action has been taken.
Soul exposed; cold hand clutches nakedness.
Stalk away with hollow, echoing steps
Silence behind beyond petrified loneliness

How empty and lifeless the gateway -
Soul shudders, wails into cold of night.


J DeBellis 09/09
Action lines from Heinrich Boll’s Action Will Be Taken – An Action-Packed Story
Remaining lines remixed from Wolfgang Borchert’s Do Stay, Giraffe