Conjugations of the verb “to be”
asleep since Adam’s fall
wake from bad phosphor dreams
heavy with mineral desire.
Earthstruck they leave
their ferny prints of spines
in beds of stone
and carry private moons
down history’s long roads,
gaudy with flags.
The one they walk behind
who’s named “I AM”
they chose with spurts of flame
to guide them
like the pillar of a cloud
into the mind’s white exile.