I want to escape through a curtain of acid

to dry caves of gold framed polished emeralds

like reptilian eyes, lakefront cabins with porches

overlooking biological storms

and abandoned golf courses underwater,

corroding into coral basins

symphonies kissing a commercial sky

feathered costumes that call in the snakes

the cotton hands of swift ethereal machinery

taking turns with our octopus soul

in the germ of a cooling light

afloat beneath the dangling planets

and long lost stars

to sleep on the grains of the dark

and come awake before an electronic door

watching brick floors fade

in mercury and water

and cells move morphing in sad ladders

red knowledge in roving screens

dead to the centuries

aloft on wings of deathly temporal power

this terminal hour.