To be sung in the subjunctive mode...

He bobbled like a toy
            upon unanswered prayers.  He worked
                        his crimson oars as whales
                                    move their sluggish fins; his blank face
                                                was a wooden bead & brain hermetically sealed
                                                            englobed his gifted creed.

We did not see him sweat
            or look upon the ground.
                        The rumble of Vesuvius
                                    did not adjust his eye.

We lauded his invention
            threading the autumn breeze:
                        a triumph allowed to man just once
                                    by the love of a God who lathed
                                                the bumble bee from Perfect Mind
                                                            & set it among the forms
                                                                        subject to poverty. 
The jesus-colored wings
            lightly scissored sky,
                        the rudder like a sparrow's tail
                                    preserved him in the deeps beyond
                                                            rude fumblings of our science.

We drew his toil with our pens.
            (Distance made him doll.)
                        Madness made him brave
                                    to swag above the towers;
                                                he saw no angels there.
 

                                                            We did not see him fall.

                                                            We did not see him fall.
 
 
 
 

Fragment, [Of, A,] Hunt

Mane, part, fish, scale,
part, imbricated, fire, the, lion,
leaps, from, stone, to, w,i,n,n,o,w,i,n,g -(Eye)/
balances, on, signatures, of, roar,
            &, A,s,h,u,r,b,a,n,i,p,a,l, draws, back, his, bow, takes, aim, beyond,
                        the, block's, black, cusp.

A, Warrior-King,
endued, with, valveless, fury. Carved, spears,
glide, within, a, rhythmic, sheath, of, stone. 
            Wheels, seem, to, thrum,
unspool, a, desert, thruway;-(Our eye)-- 
completes, the, story, of, a, hunt, done, long,
            before, the, birth, of, E,v,e,r,y,m,a,n's,E,l,o,h,i,m.

Arrows, sundering, their, knotted, joints,
sculpted, lions, harden, like,
a, mountain, range, against, the, sight.

Can, tongue,
honor, the, torsion, of, these, stallion, hooves, the, gathered, reins,
                        careering, chariot?
a,u,t,o,c,h,t,h,o,n,i,c, pomp, like, the, fields, of, a, lodestone,
tricked, out, by, iron? cavo-relievo,
riders, of, cartoon, elegance?
            blood's, granulated, gesture?

He, who, collected, wax, &, clay, oracles,
breathed, the, name, G,i,l,g,a,m,e,s,h,
made, loaves, of, brick,
sing,

(Fratricide-King),

Roar,
wounded, geometry,
brailled, beneath, our, fingers, 
(c,o,r,b,e,l,s,t,a,c,k,e,d,o,n,c,o,l,u,m,n),
&, beyond,-the, first, red,
chaos, a, ziggurat, rises:

A,S,H,U,R,B,A,N,I,P,A,L, 
                                                its, theme.
 
 
 

Shelley

1. 
Glamoured faces
Peered through brackish smoke
At the gosling boy
Ember-riddled, golden.

It was heady, necromantic work
To perform a deed so joyful, so obscene:
Sifting an asbestos heart for souvenir
As Byron sulked behind a tepid wave.

2.
Glow through the storied night, iron furnace, crucible,
Render the matter down to a vulgar glitter:
The legend dulls like a beard of tin
Tacked to the chin of a skull.

    Yet we still bend to it
thrust our hands among the smoking mirrors
drag the anvils near.