Deliquescent Bodies (Love Parade)

Deliquescent Bodies (Love Parade)

I hope for night; it comes; it is here;

it comes with rain & river,

& the lights are electric.

I am offered a drink

& the mercury blue neon over the door

catches my eye, tears open the retina,

imbuing the optic nerve

with cold cathode gas,

ionising my nervous system to the limit.

Breathing carbon dioxide, I metabolize

my own body.

I am a pillar of ether by the exit door.

But I’m not alone. We all matter less

than we did before,

Everyone who leaves this place

is a near-departed quantity

shivering in the rain.

We trudge like shades at the water’s edge.

The river gives us the eye of a sick fish.

It squirms and recedes in our presence,

like we’re a toxin about to destroy its insides.

A loud trumpet blast,

and an angelic voice from above

or from behind,

bends our senses back to life

and we wade into the water.

The river takes on the sweetness

of a dark liqueur, satin to the touch,

spicy to the taste.

We emerge,

bodies shining like new stars,

burning gently as flesh begets life,

life begets spirit, and spirit begets love.

A watchman is coming; he stops;

he wants to lead us somewhere.

We demur; we are embarrassed

and unsure. I am a prophet, he says,

not a policeman. Later I recall

how he stood under a Salix tree

and pointed at a hole in the sky

where the moon used to be.

The moon is in your heads, he told us,

healing each of you from sober separation.

We are happy and nothing out there –

nothing flesh, nothing bone –

can touch our deliquescent bodies.

We are luminous night-ghosts

in our own love parade.

In each other we find no obstacle.

We mix air with air in pure union,

Our lips tremble at the thought.

When we speak, our mouths

are stopped with laughter,

Our throats brim with delight.

No point staying here, semi-speechless,

with the city looking at us like we’re crazy.

So, on we go towards the iron bridge

where a big taxi waits like a chariot

to ferry us to the heaven of our bed.