Saturn
Inside the pit he stood
In all his battered glory, stood Father Time
A chunk missing from his thigh
Devoured, as he had once devoured before.
Nine days above his head, under neon billboards
I am born again.
Bald and naked underneath the Times Square
The same place 60 years ago where my grandfather once stood,
Hiding from draft notices.
And here I am in the same spot, hiding from my childhood
The war had never left his eyes, and I am still a child inside my head.
In my head my childhood replays itself
With the same mistakes, same weaknesses.
Trapped and lost for 27 years inside a giant’s nursery
My mother, ever the soothsayer, and her grandmother before her
Predicted of a harsh time, and prayed
For her sons’ safety, and her grandchildren after.
Because mothers are greedy beings
Ravenous sirens with an american appetite for inexhaustible virtue
My father wished for an endless tomorrow
Tomorrow where the same comedy enacts again
Every morning the pages turn itself, back to the same chapter, and back again.
For men are creatures that cannot be held responsible for what they do in the present
Only in his thoughts of tomorrow,
And the scars of yesterday.
Today, I am my father’s father
And you are the mother that your mother wished for.
Nine days below my feet, father time watches the play inside his pit
The very play he once acted in
He watches as he had devoured and been devoured before
