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Martyrs in suburbia - (we wander like breezes) (Free verse) by zodiac
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We wander like breezes
Among waxed-floored fluorescent-humming friezes,
Me and Jesus and Joan of Arc. Itâs
Late â we catechize gray eggs and cheeses
Casting out extra calories and magnesium
For the making of omelets â oh, nothing pleases
Martyrs like an omelet: itâs the breaking
Of eggs that agrees with them.
And the aisles are empty, bright and stark; itâs
Hushed all through the midnight supermarket
As lush, forgotten Elysium.
And I'm tired, and Jesus is talking fast; he questions
Onions, exhorts tomatoes - for him, martyr-
dom, you know, is something more than a profession.
- I look across where Joan is listening, testing
Heart-shaped peppers, and canât tell from expression
If she remembers sacrifice is harder
When you donât know â itâs something Jesus
couldnât know now, become as he is (as
Human as Zeus or Dionysus.)
And Iâm not scared to die or do my part or
What theyâd say â I'll be the seed that's threshed in
That fiery immortal catechesis;
Though when we get out in the warm, earthy dark, it
Seems to me the whole damned Patriarchateâs
Like cold, forgotten Elysium.
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