hypnosis at high noon

I'm alive
I am part of the human race, and
I am myself (to the point of obsession) –
like a glimpse in the mirror
I am a blueprint passed on in secret
a spell of fate locked inside the strongbox of the soul

but I can never find the combination to open it
(you are getting sleepy)
and so I wake up
at the high noon of consciousness

lighting up the ignorance and vulnerability
     of the entire universe
the hunger and desire suddenly formed in this instant

I actively replicate DNA just to water down
     my terror of dying
class-character and domination are obvious
     without study
I examine the folds in a gorilla's cerebrum
to gain control of the dreams of all primates
while suspecting that I too am under examination –

(you are getting sleepy)

and so I wake up
in the most solitary depths of consciousness
doing repeated research into the directives
     of hypnotism and anti-hypnotism
: "And so you gave your wholesale acceptance
     to this clearcut and yet bizarre existence

including the jolts and the ambiguities it contains . . ."
I live in the human way
and can do no better than to believe in it
with unshakeable conviction

(you are getting sleepy)

and so I wake up
at dawn on the outermost border of consciousness
not knowing which way to turn amidst illusions
     and chimaeras
everything flows into the raging flood of the dim awareness
     of the universe
including the nothingness carried by clouds . . .

and so I fall asleep dreaming of reality
reality: the hypnotist’s highest directive

and in the same way noon sunlight evaporates
     every single shadow
heat steams off my brain
dreamscapes subside – no one was asleep
and no one woke

after all

1996

HYPNOSIS AT HIGH NOON