After Heinrich I. F. Biber

I

What's unseen may not exist—
Or so those secret powers insist
          That prowl past nightfall,
Enabled by the brain's blacklist
          To fester out of sight,

So we streak from bad to worse,
Through an expanding universe
          And see no evil.
On my rounds like a night nurse
         Or sentry on qui vive,

I make, through murkier hours, my way
Where the sun patrolled all day
          Toward stone-blind midnight
To poke this flickering flashlamp's ray
          At what's hushed up and hidden.

Lacking all leave or protocol,
Things, one by one, hear my footfall,
          Blank out their faces,
Dodge between trees, find cracks in walls
          Or lock down offices.

Still, though scuttling forces flee
Just as far stars recede from me
          To outmost boundaries,
I stalk through ruins and debris,
          Graveyard and underground.

Led by their helmetlantern's light
Miners inch through anthracite;
          I'm the unblinking mole
That sniffs out what gets lost or might
          Slip down the world's black hole.

II

(ending his rounds, the watchman, somewhat tipsy, returns)

What's obscene?—just our obsessed,
Incessant itch and interest
     In things found frightful:
In bestial tortures, rape, incest;
     In ripe forbidden fruit

Dangling, lush, just out of reach;
Dim cellars nailed up under each
     Towering success,
The loser's envy that will teach
     A fierce vindictiveness,

The victors' high court that insures
Pardon for winners and procures
     Little that's needed
But all we lust for. What endures?—
     Exponential greed

And trash containers overflowing
With shredded memos, records showing
     What, who, when, why
'Til there's no sure way of knowing
     What's clear to every eye:

The heart's delight in hatred, runny
As the gold drip from combs of honey;
     The rectal intercourse
Of power politics and money
     That slimes both goal and source.

What's obscured?—what's abscessed.
After inspection, I'd suggest
     It's time we got our head
Rewired. I plan to just get pissed,
     Shitfaced and brain-dead.