Rochelle Owens

'Patterns of Animus,' Part 4: Carnal/Spiritual

“But how could you live and have

no story to tell”

 

1.

 

The rhythm of spontaneous

change moving back and forth evokes

the scenic order

 

Earth  Air  Fire  Water

 

Long ago   an hour ago

only a minute   morning to evening

evening to morning

 

Past   Present   Future

 

Cold at dawn   warm

at midday   boiling at midnight

a course of events moving

 

Back and forth   every day

 

Bears the data   data

of body   body of data   with each

breath a sucking sound

 

Animal soul   Spiritual hole

 

Biomorphic   geomorphic  

polymorphic   moisture and nutrients

flow in your mammalian brain

 

Slashes of solar light

 

Vibrating subatomic particles

split vertical/horizontal   chasms

and fissures in the earth

 

Work is a binding obligation

 

Black and hot my coffee                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War                             

            

“Stupidity is brief and artless                                                                                         

intelligence squirms and hides itself.”

 

 

2.

 

On the monumental screen

an amalgam of letters join together

organize themselves

 

Vertical/horizontal 

 

Moving back and forth

a jagged black line zigzags   splits  

zigzags   breaks apart   zigzags

 

A latent image appears

 

Disappears   your eyes move

constantly while reading   Body of Data

Data of Body

 

Digital letters spell  

 

G E N U S   evolution is smart  

clear and simple   competition is intense

between species  

 

Networks of neurons

 

Chemical molecular   a flow

of hormonal forces   hungry or thirsty

eat or drink

 

Sight   Smell   Taste

 

Digital letters spell 

B A C T E R I A    S A L T   hungry

or thirsty eat or drink

 

Your mouth waters

 

Salt in the stew   salt

In the bread   your body sways

from side to side 

Inhaling   exhaling                                                                                                                                         

 

The Universe contracts                                                                                              

                                   E  X  P  A  N  D  S

spirals of veins pulsate  

 

Your tongue protrudes

from your mouth   blood in  

blood out

     

Work is a binding obligation

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine Torture  War

 

“A longing for life.  It’s not a matter of intellect or logic

it’ s loving with one’s inside with one’s stomach.” 

 

3.

 

On the monumental screen

a jagged black line zigzags   splits 

breaks apart   zigzags

 

An outline shapes itself

 

The body of the tapeworm

moving back and forth moving

back and forth along

 

The alimentary canal 

                     

Digital letters spell 

H E A D   N E C K and chain  of

S E G M E N T S

 

The body of the tapeworm

 

S E G M E N T I NG 

undulating   multiple suckers and

mouths blowing kisses

 

 

Amorous the greedy seed                                                                                

 

Craving licking sucking                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 chewing gorging   anus to mouth

mouth to anus lickety-split

 

Take me away from this earth

 

Salt in the stew  

salt in the bread  I could have

danced all night

 

Work is a binding obligation

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War

       

“Can’t I simply be devoured without being expected                                                                                                               

to praise what devours me.”

 

 

4.

 

A latent image appears

disappears   in such a way will

events unfold leaving

 

Empty spaces

 

Morning to evening

evening to morning you are

about to play

 

The role of your life

 

Through the gaps

of your fingers moving vertical/

horizontal moving front

 

And back   back and forth

 

An amalgam of letters

moving back and forth   slowly

the letters entwine

 

Audible inaudible

Moving your lips                                                                                                

as you read   from A to Z

Oh wicked world!                                                     

 

Biomorphic   geomorphic

polymorphic   inhaling exhaling  

with each breath

 

A sucking sound

    

Body of data  data

of body   moving your lips

as you read  

 

From A to Z oh wicked world!     

 

Digital letters spell

T R E A T   D E A T H   L I K E   B I R T H 

 

how tightly the words hold you

 

Work is a binding obligation                                                                                              

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War

 

“Nature doesn’t ask your permission it doesn’t care

about your wishes or whether you like its laws or not”

 

 

5.

 

Unforeseen drifting along

the alimentary canal humming

singing whistling

 

The tapeworm blowing kisses

 

A phenomenal talent

of melody swiveling along

your gut wall

 

S T R E T C H I N G

 

His neck from right                                                                                                            

to left gushing spurting squirting

swaying side to side                                                                                          

 

The body of the tapeworm

 

Seized with jittery energy                                     

shakes rattles and rolls rhythmic

the ecstasy of Master Worm

 

Trembling ejaculating

 

Hot dense fireballs

spermatozoon a ferocious

               S  C  A  T  T  E  R  I  N  G

 

Neutron stars black holes

 

Behold! The Universe contracts   

 

E     X     P     A     N     D     S 

 

Work is a binding obligation

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War

 

“When you look into an abyss the abyss

looks into you”

 

 

6.

 

In the beginning Earth

undertook experiments there

were many freaks

 

Bizarrely put together 

 

Fluttering your eyelashes

you chew the rind of a lemon

and suck in your cheeks

 

A flow of hormonal forces

 

Your blood-packed tongue

and bulbous eyes move constantly

digital letters spell

 

Carnal/spiritual

 

Spirals of colors pulsate                      

zigzags of black lines vertical/

horizontal 

 

An outline shapes itself

 

Biomorphic geomorphic

polymorphic  inhaling exhaling

with each breath

 

A sucking sound

 

The camera zooms and pans

the body of a scorpion walking with

its legs In a strange

 

Rhythmical arrangement 

 

Animal soul spiritual hole

you are about to play the role

of your life 

 

Blood in  Blood out 

 

Work is a binding obligation

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War

 

“There is more wisdom in your body than

in your deepest philosophy”

 

 

7.

 

As the planets orbit

the sun saliva pools behind

your teeth

 

Before drought and hunger                                                                                         

 

The clouds the rain

snow hail storms thunder

lightening bolts

 

 Before the notion

of peaceful humility a ferocious                                                                    

                              S  C  A  T  T  E  R  I  N  G

 

Amorous the greedy seed

 

Cold at dawn warm

at midday boiling at midnight 

rays of light penetrate

 

The dome of your skull

 

The brain contracting

                          E X P A N D I N G

when your eyes move

 

A latent image appears

disappears   swiveling along your

gut wall a jagged black line

 

Splits zigzagging

 

Breaks apart embedding

the fat and sleek little wormlets 

growing regenerating

 

Craving licking sucking

 

Digital letters spell

S I G H T  S M E L L  T A S T E

hungry or thirsty eat or drink

 

The camera zooms and pans

 

Glowing particles of

charred fish skin  a loaf of bread

a glass of water  

 

Work is a binding obligation                                                                                            

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War 

 

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that

in the process he does not become a monster”

 

 

8.

 

And only then on the

computer screen in elaborate

lettering reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Ornamental letters moving

back and forth appear disappear

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

On multiple screens

zigzags of black lines break off 

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Under the stump of a tree

out of a hole the art of nature

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Where heaven and earth

intersects rhythmic the ecstasy

reading the words

 

Of the Poet Maudite

 

Beyond our visible world

mysterious the Dancing Worm

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Fat lambs slaughtered                                                                                               

for the feast vertical/horizontal

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Then the hand of the

butcher lops off diseased parts

reading the words                         

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Then the hand of the                                                                                                 

butcher cuts away rotten meat

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

An image half seen

swiveling along your gut wall

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Animal soul spiritual hole

take me away from this earth

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Head neck and chain of

S E G M E N T S  gush spurt squirt

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Seized with jittery energy

you must find the demon in everything

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Where heaven and earth

intersects rhythmic the ecstasy

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite                                                                                                  

 

Hearing the chirps and

whistles of Lorelei our Dancing Worm

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Multiple suckers and lips                      

dribble gurgle gush slobber squirt

reading the words

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

A head protrudes

from your mouth carnal/spiritual

reading the words

 

 

Of the Poete Maudite

 

Behold Our Mistress Worm!  

 

Work is a binding obligation

 

Black and hot my coffee

 

Disease  Famine  Torture  War

 

                                  — Rochelle Owens

                                                    

                                                   (Eight citations of two energetic

                                                    phillosophers; Dostoevski and Nietzsche)

 

 

[N.B. The preceding is the continuation of Rochelle Owens’s epic new work, earlier sections of which have appeared here before, and more will surely follow. (J.R.)]