from An Amateur’s Guide to the Invisible World
I’m working for another king now, who’s gay
& half a head shorter than his lover. The king
claims there’s been negligence. The king claims
that funds–like himself–are short…
Somehow, the mules & donkeys are starving…
While the treasury’s been drained on horses, war
horses (lining the pockets of those who breed them,
who of course, are all friends of the king).
And even if most of the kingdom is going
broke now, with many starving, the fault
it’s claimed–or certainly the burden–is ours.
Only now, the king will no longer see us.
He’s retreated from the throne in a snit
of wounded pride & the failures of his policies.
So, we can only hear what the king claims
through his lover, who now seems in charge…
*
I awaken in a somewhat alternative realm
and think: “Well, all the wealth sucked to the top
& stoked by war doesn’t need Dr. Freud.
I mean listen to the news, and welcome to
the Kali Yuga. Have a nice day!”
–No, you already know that.
What about your own real negligence,
and the raging real conflicts
of your own real life
That you won’t even speak of, and
that you keep facing in the same
old way–giving preferential treatment
to the parts of yourself that already
have it cushy, while other parts of
you are starving from neglect?
Plus, the waking situation is this: Your wife
is dead. Your tribe has scattered & you’re
mostly up in your cloister writing
In a country more and more resembling
a Banana Republic stumbling, half
blinded by pixels, towards oblivion.
While more menacing–the truly vile
in the republic are worming their way to the top.
There’s a lack of real leadership in this dream.
And in your life. The scene seems dire
but the response seems rather passive. And so,
the king–who’s that, what’s that–in you?
A runt-sized, out dated Executive function
that’s evacuated the premises, who sends an emissary out to do his bidding?
And what about your own body? That
faithful mule who has served you so well
& to whom you throw scraps?
But back to your social instinct–kind of tenuous
and clunky at times, isn’t it? And perhaps why
the king you’ve been working for trots some
Handsome Johnny out, rather than risk speaking
to his own people. And it’s not even clear
what kind of work you do–what about that?
You weren’t sure what to make of this dream.
Your clever interpretation of its lyses lacks
the angle of vision, and so misses the point
of the angelic messenger bringing your dreams.
And so, here’s what you thought:
“This is just what it’s like to have a memory
that doesn’t know when it quit, as if in the night
its pail has dipped way back into the storehouse
for grain put away from some other time–a time
when all that mattered is what the king claims…”
*
Clever, I guess. But like the Evening News,
a superficial account. Your interpretations
are still veiled. Like much religion
The transmission of this dream got garbled
between worlds. Parts were lost.
Here’s what you missed…
At the very beginning, there were two kings
in this dream, two kings in you and in
everyone. And when we look down on either,
we cynically fail to recognize our own majesty.
One king is your ego, the stressed-out
ruler of a precarious realm. The other
king seems no longer around.
He’s invisible, but when we forget about him
that leaves the ego king in charge. Freud made
the same mistake, and modern psychology
has yet to recover from his maxim of
Where Id is, there shall Ego be.
But don’t look down on your ego either.
Though lacking in stature, as the dream
reflected, that king is doing the best that
he can–but the job is too big for him.
And as with the two kings,
there are two kinds of war.
One kind is stupid, an inadequate solution
Launched by ego kings, and fueled
by hubris, greed, blaming others,
impotent rage–it drains your treasury.
The other kind of war is an internal affair
waged against the above. (When you tame
your own inner conflicts, the missing
King comes back into view.
And this jihad is the war
we need to fight.
But don’t forget to feed the mules and donkeys
They’re the faithful forms of discipline
that can carry your load to market.
Along with the mules, our world is starving
from a lack of discernment between these
two kings and these two kinds of war.
Become a friend of the king who was
here first, the primordial ruler we forget about
who exists everywhere and nowhere in
particular–Give him everything…but don’t forget
To tether your pack animal. Only then does
what was hidden come back into view.
For what’s enduringly and invisibly real
Was never not here. And it remains
even after
the last breath is gone…