our hero, Siegfried,
lie splayed out on the floor
or at least what he later assumed to be the floor
in an environment so devoid of description
to be nearly unwritable with sane faculties.

he was inside an opera,
within its clammy concrete stone heart
in which gravity only pushed, and yet
still he lie flat on Wagnerian, authoritarian ground.

the first thing he remembered was slipping
backward into the tunnel of darkness
through his lazy shut eyes
and falling slowly
asleep,



except the numbness didn't come from his toes
it came from the headache he fought
which came from paralysis and paranoia of tranquilizers
it stumbled and twisted through the middle lane
of the race he neither stopped or started running.



...nothing.
nothing flattened by more nothing
pressed as if drawing out
thin steam
and heavy hot darkness
and a heart-squeeze of panic.
and more nothing.



and as a Roman long ship, his soul,
pressed on by sea slave synapses,
sailed forth with a rhythm, a pulse
of necessity and boredom -
he twitched and drew forward
but did not stir.



and when Siegfried did stir,
it was not a sun-settled breath,
it was a Lazarus sign that stole his words
and replaced them with arms crossed
he looked down with pity and breathed again.



a breath bound by tightrope ostinatos
looped around his chest as bridge cables
and while he lie rigid, he wondered
why he hadn't foreseen it,
this Lilliput place leaving him in shackles
and he was trapped with clear sight
of the dragon.

at last, the music was his:



as he floated, wrapped in his song,
a lieder of a life of forward motion
and this the coda, the rope released -
only an animal, Siegfried remained.

01/31/2010

Author's Note: Poemuary Entry #31: Thank you all for putting up with this crazy month! I did, in fact, write a little less than half of this before today; I do hope that's alright.

the idea: Siegfried's story is interspersed with appropriate leitmotifs from Siegfried of Das Ring der Nibelungen.

the leitmotifs and their meanings, chronologically: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AVnHtUi9X_kMZGRybmNieHRfNDBmMnhraGtjZw&hl=en

Posted on 01/31/2010
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