Beheaded

establishing an image of the skull who speaks
truth ... an old one that disembodied head
who might tell me what might be mine
the fantastic and the secret
the ways to fortune or health or sexual prowess

the slestak (slee stack) talk to the illuminated
skulls of their ancestors
who are thought to know more
of the workings of the universe than the insect people

the knights templar, tortured by the king of france
and the pope, in the name of the inquisition, claimed
their instructions came from disembodied heads
in metal caskets in secret rooms at their monasteries

admittedly they also talked about their anuses too much,
such is the nature of torture
but still the magic of the maltese falcon begins
to seep through these words

there was a mexican horror movie
featuring the severed head of a 16th
century magician, part of cortez group
who stole the golden mayan faces
a rancher's son dug him up and the head
spoke to him saying
I will make you happy
but you must be mine

and in an ash tree in a dream
I had the head sat upon the limb
and talking in aphorisms and she
called me from the celts and said I
knew a woman who had the power
under her pillow the blood appeared
never an explanation
but I didn't care
I'd rather believe in magic
because the supernatural implies
hope

so the talking skull in knoepfle's poem
is the father and the son but it is also
the ghost of my self
and cannot walk away
it only creates specious solutions

the priestess married her disappearance
I do not sleep well
I do not trust my solutions
I am an anagram of the nation this way

we have become disembodied
we have lost our genitals and our assholes
we have no breath nor blood nor bile
nor anything that connects us to the earth
our thoughts flicker on the cave wall