Oedipus

Memory was all we wrote in stone
That yesterday
When God came down from rocky crags
Inscribed in fire

We tried to find out what to do
But every time we asked
He simply smiled

His laugh was like sunlight

But when we tried to sculpt his form
His breath, his tears, his body
In our bronze
He moved to disappear
And desperate, thirsting for a question or an answer
We had no choice

We took our chisels
Pierced his hands
Secured his feet with stakes and bands
And in discovering his heart
Our vivisection found his side
And as the blood and water flowed and mingled with our tears
We took two trees and fit them to his form

And ever since, our words have lost the fate they once held in their tone
And ever since that dark, when earth rose up and skies cracked, lightless
We still know that he was set, alone, erect, amidst the field
Beside the broken stone