Mr Cogito’s Monster
1
The lucky Saint George
could judge the dragon’s
strength and movements
from his knightly saddle
strategy’s first principle
size up the enemy well
Mr Cogito’s position
is less advantageous
he’s seated in the low
saddle of the valley
wrapped in thick fog
in the fog you can’t make out
the burning eyes
the greedy claws
the maw
in the fog
you see only
the flickering of nothingness
Mr Cogito’s monster
lacks all dimensions
it’s hard to describe
it eludes definitions
it’s like a vast depression
hanging over the country
it can’t be pierced
by a pen
an argument
a spear
if not for its stifling weight
and the death it sends
you might conclude
that it was a phantom
a disease of the imagination
but it’s there
it’s there all right
it fills crannies of houses
temples bazaars like gas
it poisons the wells
destroys a mind’s constructs
covers the bread with mold
proof the monster exists
is offered by its victims
indirect proof
but sufficient
2
the sensible say
you can coexist
with the monster
just try to avoid
violent gestures
violent speech
when threatened
take on the form
of a stone or leaf
obey wise Nature
who urges mimicry
breathe shallowly
play we’re not here
Mr Cogito however
dislikes living as-if
he’d like to fight
the monster
on solid ground
so he goes out at dawn
to the sleeping suburbs
intrepidly fitted out
with a long sharp object
he calls to the monster
through empty streets
he insults the monster
provokes the monster
like the daredevil scout
of a non-existent army
he calls—
come out you dirty coward
through the fog
you see only
the huge mug of nothingness
Mr Cogito wants to
join the unequal fray
this should happen
as soon as possible
before he is felled
by powerlessness
common death without glory
suffocation by shapelessness
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