A thousand miles of broken glass
Dust, ash, winter’s harsh rash
Lay before Cassius
The death of a dying heart which never stops beating
The pain of a billion weights upon a pin
The thousands of hammers hitting the heart
The heart beats to never know another
Another beat
Blood red
Wiser than the red
Is empty thoughts that cannot control
The ocean that covers a million miles ahead
Is nothing but dead
And every dead thing
Has floated to the top
The smell of death
Is so great
The heart is the smell of death
And it beats a billion pains
Wanting to die
It cannot.
So Cassius was.
Though a hero in minds such as ours
His wife had betrayed him
She held adultery with another man
With a man he thought of as his closest friend
And they, adulterous union
In the perplexity of passion
Decided to Murder
The one son
Son of Cassius and his wife
To remove memory of the union
Of Cassius and his wife.
He then fled
The town of arrows and deadly skies
On a journey long to go home
To his mother
From whom betrayal had never come
The wilderness surrounds him
Now like a black sky
Mist carries away the thoughts
Of unthinkable agony
Agony roles in waves
And like the engines of war
And cuts through the world
Breaking the stars of the world
Holding things together
Is what breaks apart
Horror after horror
Comes before the eyes
Such was the heart of Cassius
A war zone
The blood mixed with iron
Fire sparks amid the snow
The stars as suns all die together
All the stars die in perfect union
Together the universe forgot all its lights in an instant
And utter darkness overcomes everything
Nowhere is there light
For every star has died
With no suggestion of return.
The universe has lost all its lights
For every star has died
In its place is a strange red wave
Hovering in the darkness
Meaning no longer exists
Guidance is no longer to be faithful
For there is no star upon which to go
Cassius from his torture must continue
His journey
Through bleak islands filled with dreams.
The lips of his son
Are now gills of a fish
For nature cares not
About the dead carcass of his son
But makes a mockery out of him
Putting pieces of him unto objects
As to terrify Cassius and laugh at him
Suddenly he felt it
The universe was laughing its great cruel laugh
The clouds above were composed of his son’s ears
The ground below was his crushed skulls
The sea around the shore was his eyes
Eyes crushed in oblivion
His organs were compiled into trees
So the forests would remind him of death
The sand of the desert was his hardened blood
His son’s blood made dry was the sand under the feet
A winged creature appeared
With his son’s brain crushed into its eye sockets
Starting new
He realized
His own mind
Was recreating
And multiplying death pieces
Of his son
Onto the world around him and everywhere
Multiplying these pieces
Millions of times over
Into the fabric of the world
He reemerged
In his walk
Starting to see again the normal sun
Not to believe that the terror had ended
But merely given him a break from madness
There standing upon the mount of mountains in the field
Stood a raven
Fair, wise, gentle
Knowing both wisdom and magic
The raven spoke thus softly
“There is a sun which never goes out
For even as mortals by nature suffer
And suffer they great pain and betrayal
There is a sun which never goes out
The foolish will worship their agony
And make God out of wood
But for the wise
There is a sun which never goes out
But for the true
There is a sun which never goes out
But for the bold
There is a sun which never goes out
But for the righteous one
There is a sun which never goes out
But for the kind in heart
There is a sun which never goes out
Let me show you this vision now
And Cassius looked up
As he had known in literal time
Been walking three days through mountainous valleys
Close to shores of classical times
He saw a great vision
Water flowing upward into the sky
Amid the mountains
Peaks of ice and beauty
Where thus by the water
Water splashing up the mountains
And in the snow light grew up
Up and up and up
Into the sky light grew upward
A sword lay at the top
And a banner read
“For let the brave now conquer
Let the pure of heart now ring
Ring their heart's in good deeds upon the altar
Let your journey be one in faith
Good faith
For you shall see the valley of the living
And the spirits of the blessed
If you now
Even still
In great pain
Stay faithful
To what you know in your heart to be right
To be good
To be righteous
To be holy
To be pure.
Stay faithful
And let the rain pour upward
And the mountains grow downward
Thus making a path
Of peace
For the righteous
Will travel through it
And it will be the abode of the blessed
Peaceful is the eye which sees it
But now you must stay good
Stay faithful
In everything stay righteous”
And so the raven spoke to Cassius
As he witnessed these things again and again
Now
Bringing him back to literal time
Was the hunger
Striking his mind
It was a strange, a foggy day
Mixing with light was a beam of iron
And red fluttering sights
Hung up upon the walls
A cave may hang
As this one did
From the sides of a hill
And deep buried in its presence
Was images
So Cassius
Bringing in his kill
Brought forth the meat
And in the cave did he discover
A man there
With light gray eyes
Topped upon a mind
With gentle intentions
He sat down
And was welcomed
To proceed
To cook his food
Ancient paints were upon the wall
This is the place
Where humankind can find itself
When any mind so strikes the side
Of its own brilliance
It must first so discover
The deep chasm
Of human thought
Which stretches back through the ages
To tough its light on human souls
To speak its grace and smooth the mind
To find
Ancient truth again
Hanging upon the wall
To find a great voice
In any time
One must find the spirit of past ages
And so Cassius
Leapt upon the wall
Only through mind
The trees sway among flowing plains
As stars flutter in and out
As is created by the axis of the sky
World of soft worlds
Streams flowing in bright heights
Discovering
The melding and blending
Of soft flowing structures
Across the ages of eons
The fair wheat
Was streaming with the sun
And glittering each in its purpose
For its beauty was as a mountain rising in the morning
And light glitters as upon the walls
Bright flowing waterfalls
Fluttering images with dawn
Soft sights in emerging light
Bright blistering dawn
Streaks its red sights here
To be here is to love
Coming from this dream
He looked again upon
His new companions eyes
Don’t give a eulogy
Until you find your home
This truth laid down its grace
Simply by the look of the elderly man's eyes
With not a sound
And yet the clarity was there
It may be thought
That in studying ancient beauty
One could find a way out
Of the chasms and dense paths
Which lie upon each other with everlasting towers
Which is the connections and webs of suffering
The suffering that strikes deep at the soul itself
However, even in satisfaction at the greatest beauties
Pain still seeps forward cresting and winding its moon in the deep
The deep dark winding paths of light
Light which is not light but merely flows like light
It is rather darkness
And even if the mind finds relief in distraction
There still exists
Past the point of water where one still would wade
The drowning point where one can no longer swim
Swim to whatever safety may exist
It is like being 1000 miles out into the ocean
And this is the distance on every side
From any possible shore
And hence with nothing to save you
No boats nor floating things
You know that death will face you
And stare you down
You cannot swim to safety
In the same way a mind cannot distract itself
No matter how great a distraction may be
When beneath the surface of what the mind now considers
There is true and great suffering
Life lies in the middle of a wild field
With moments of joy and awe stricken love
But also with moments of relentless terror
Where terror strikes upon terror
And the eyes look up to an ever growing pattern
Of joyless strikes of terror in the eyes
The paths, the maps, and the wild winds of guidance
Sometimes only point to pain
As a bleak field in dark stained hands
Lifts itself up to look upon
With horror at its own, way, place, and life
In this way Cassius could find no true distraction
From the pain beneath his skin
Re-flexing itself into every moment and movement he could feel
His mind made swift movements to focus on
The needs of his flesh feeling great strain
Straining as a newly grown weed
Moves itself to find its sustenance
And thus in this way Cassius made his food
And the elderly man tipped his head
Welcoming him with kindness
Sit down
Thus striking in the mind
Came a most unfamiliar phenomenon
Since hours and hours of love had past
With his wife
One would think total trust must exist
Following from the premise
The thought, reality
Picture, and practice
And yet now
Just in a glance from a moment
A moment built in structures of time
Behind the glassy eyes of experience
There is the other world
Of shapes and structures
Building images
Which from these images build new frames
And in this frames comes the world you and I know
Cassius was able to know
That his new friend could be trusted
As doubt like a shadow wades over human affairs
So this constant feature
Of life
Suddenly drifted away
And a form of knowledge strangely emerged
Knowing with certainty he was in good company
He drifted
After his warm meal
Into sleep
Into a new world he fell
In this realm
His head felt cold and dust
An odd feeling felt
And sparkling in the gut
Came to string his mind into pieces
Of concern mixed with excitement
A vision came
The first light
Light of bright streaks
As one could see in primal sky
Brings images into form
So Cassius says he was near a lake
And looking downward
He saw a woman emerging
From the water
The lake was dark
And the sky above was in darkness
Covering
As miles of ice
May cover the ground in an arctic haze
She was dressed in red
And he remembered
Days of sweet remembrance
And in bitterness
He had to admit
That he had enjoyed
Many hours with his former wife
This thought standing on its own
Was like a bitter ring of death
Showing itself on ones arm
Predicting the worst of any fate
In a spiral of strange
Desiring
Sweet
Bizarre
Captivating
And deathly images
He could remember his moments with her
How could goodness exist
In a dark fire swirling in the ice
The mind crushes itself with strange addiction
And
In unnatural fluctuations of thought
Finds a hint of pleasure
Which is itself a form of torture
Out beyond the stretch of space
Came a tunnel
Flowing in its density
From the glass sky
Which in squares was composed
As when haunted gods
And heroes of old
Were said to dwell in abiding places
Captured in these glass skies
While down below
Bellowing was Cassius
As he came up through the tunnel
And thus he awoke
With a yell and a spit
He emerged in the new realm
Which was yet not so uncommon
But was his true place since the stars of birth
And in the red rose of morning
He knew the green bud
From the ground which gave it life
The petals fell before him
His companion in the cave gave a frightened look
Concern grew quick and sincere
Across his face
And like a flash of divine wisdom
Showed itself to Cassius
And echoing in its depths
Created a new world
With his face as an ever growing icon
Sight of sights to strip the mind
Of every folly not knowing love
“Fine, just a dream”
He quickly muttered
Speaking up and out hearing it through ages
As if his voice was slowed to last such a time
Then he knew
That he was at a cross section
A moment in a path
Which was planned by the cruel fate of destiny
He would resent
Because with it is a tarnished purity
Like rusted iron
And kind words distorted
To be marks of bitterness
And suffering
Like ashes from the fire
Poured cruelly into the face of the innocent
So was his leaving of the cave
Driven by duty and necessity
The cave was shrouded in mist
And deep fog captured its time
Space bellowing its strange echo
Leaves wither and die slowly
As such was the frame
Draped across the image
Of that cave hanging in the mist
The primal thing
Of that which is good and true
Was reminded to him there
And dwelling in it
He knew
Its spaces in the naturalness
Of dimly emerging light
The light which gives to all things
Light pouring across the valley
And smiling its kind face
On hearts of every heart
Deep in the mind
Giving it joy
A new found brilliance
As silence before God
As a moon shining in the morning
As brilliant rays of sun
Flying as in dreams
From a deep dark backdrop of the night
A classic archetype lay before him
As when the young must leave the pure care of their mother
And go out into the wide world alone
So when the hunter must leave the beautiful canyon
Or the beautiful jungle
Because duty requires it
It requires that one must leave
And dwell elsewhere for the hunt
So with this changes
Brings a motion
Past pure appreciation for life itself
That sweet and kind virtue
Bringing happiness in ever growing yields
To the state of dire responsibility
In this way Cassius set out
Knowing that corruption may come at any door
Door of his mind and space of his heart
So he kept wandering
Ever westward
Till he comes to his kind isle of home
And sweet warmth of kindness
So his dream upon dream
As walls make spaces clear
And magic makes imaginings come forth
So he wandered onward
Across the rocking rails
Of iron rocks
And sagging bushes
Of wine dark skies
And crawling dark bugs
To the beads
And glass bottles
Of a winding thread
A place for sprawling paths
Across a journey wide and well traveled
Hours passed upon hours
Till he crawled forth
And in a new space
Saw a dawning light
And so for ten times thirty hours
He walked, rested, and walked
Across valleys
Over hills
Over dense green places
And soft plains with sheep
Over kind meadows and tight roads
In places and spaces
Crawling under the sun
Until he came upon
A town under the sun letters
Letter burning in high heights
And towering figures
Of bright lights
Men draped in cloaks
With lanterns hanging upon them
Lighting up their sides
Black slits across their eyes
Within which was only cruelty