Credo

A cloud of grasshoppers
Rose from where we loved
And passed before the sun
I wondered what farms they would devour
What slave people would go free
Because of them
I thought of pyramids overturned
Of Pharaoh hanging by the feet
His body smeared - then my love drew me down
To conclude what I had begun

Later, clusters of fern apart, we lay
A cloud of grasshoppers
Passed between us and the moon
Going the other way
Each one fat and flying slow
Not hungry for the leaves and ferns
We rested on below
The smell that burning cities give
Was in the air

Battalions of the wretched
Wild with holy promises
Soon passed our sleeping place
They ran among the ferns and grass
I had two thoughts: To leave my love
And join their wandering
Join their holiness or take my love
To the city they had fled:
That impoverished world
Of boil-afflicted flesh and rotting fields
Could not tempt us from each other
Our ordinary morning lust
Claimed my body first and made me sane
I must not betray
The small oasis where we lie
Though only for a time
It is good to live between
A ruined house of bondage
And a holy promised land
A cloud of grasshoppers
Will turn another Pharaoh upside down
Slaves will build cathedrals
For other slaves to burn it is good to hear
The larvae rumbling underground
Good to learn
The feet of fierce or humble priests
Trample out the green