By lanterns' light hung up at intervals,
our Preacher roams the streets. He dothn't feel
the cooling autumn air tonight, for he
is drunker than a captain chugging pints
on open Sea as if his life depends
on drunkenness sustaining him upright.
This simile's, however, just a joke
concocted by intoxicated thoughts,
for not our Preacher here, of course, as he
hath only drunk tonight for fun, of course. 10
Meanderings and promenades accrue
the distance that our Preacher saunters by
as th'intervals of light grow greater wide
and deeper dark with shade and stone unlit
until he quite is lost, can't recognize
the buildings or the streets or these canals,
a little narrower than those he knows
more thoroughly around th'acropolis.
Yet on he presses, whistling merrily
a sailing chantey that he knew in youth 20
whose words escape his twisting, tipsy tongue
and foggy brain which shifts his ev'ry sight
a little to the left ere compensates
it overly to right, as up with down
as well are so affected, and his legs,
the silly victims of his balancing,
which struggle comic'lly to hold him straight,
and fail for a second as he tips
toward the channel's edge on tippy toes
and smiling, waves his arms and bobs his head 30
before he conjures up a gust of wind
by sweeping th'onyx hand from back to front,
to push him back to safety with a laugh
and braid the foggy plumes around his form.
Our Preacher's chuckle fades; when was it last
he felt such joy alone, so free of thoughts
intruding on his state to weigh his heart?
He dothn't know; it's years he must recall
since last was Preacher able to enjoy
himself without another to distract 40
his mind from swinging down to th'ugly dregs.
And even with his thinking all of this—
perceiving what is happening—the thoughts
that usu'lly occur do not encroach,
for truly his elation conquers all
in but this moment, prompting him to think
perhaps he's struck a secret that they miss'd
YOU ARE READING
As Ever Like the Sun & Moon at War
PoetryA troubled Pilgrim sets upon a road in search by sun and storm of paradise; a vain Pariah's banish'd from his home to render justice by the moonlit night: two individuals who share a flesh, each unalike in methods and beliefs, yet fated consequence...
