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James K. Baxter Complete Prose Volume 1

[Ex Nihilo]

[Ex Nihilo]

Let the clock toll in its boarded tower.

I too have known the City of Man and the anarchic Tree of Knowledge – where the great Tyrant is thrown down from his rock of clouds and the lion waves roar on the beaches.

And I may yet live to see Queen Venus cross the Dead Sea in a witch’s sieve. But I am now in the crypt of the City of God: green stalactites hang frompage 29 the roof, the sole voice heard is that of the arid scorpion, blood in circle of fire.

My shadow crouches behind me; from his eyes run blood and brackish water; outside the world-end wind that smells of sailor’s tar.

Today is leper’s day when the dead beg for coins. I have no money to give but I can lick their sores.

But here comes my love naked on her wooden horse, with honey smeared on her hands and thighs. What if she sprout dog’s hair under the black sun of Persia? In her forest face lies buried my lost name.

Listen to the thunder of grass under paving stones. To every prostitute her virginity is miraculously restored. Take off your canvas mask, my friend, and let the worms go free.

The Ice Age is inaugurated by the opening of a new torture chamber. Here we go down the manhole to the sewer pit of tomorrow.

1948 (23)