Ichthyosaurus Rex

"Medium te mundi prosui, ut circumspeceres inde commodius quicquid est in mundo. Nec te coelestem, neque terrenum, neque mortalem, neque immortalem fecimus, ut tui ipsius quasi arbitrarius honorariusque plastes et fictor, in qua malueris tute formam effingas. Poteris in inferirora quae sunt bruta degenerare. Poteris in superiora quae sunt divina ex tui animi sententia regenerari."1

(De Hominis Dignitate, Ioannis Pici Mirandulae concordia Comitis Oratio) 



Slithering up next to you in a bar
I pretty up my camouflage smile,
While hiding inside a thousand knives –
Primeval stilettos, sharpened by eons of practice.


You begrudge me a touch – too fast, too soon?
As well you should; had you looked into my abyss,
You would shudder at the whirlpool of naked desire,
The inexorable vortex of instinct, strong as death,
Foaming in the darkness of my soul –
А Death Star, enveloped in unrelenting blackness.

I shudder at it myself...


For I am not a Man  –
That would be so anachronistic.
What am I?
    - an amalgamation of enzymes,
    - a well-lubed sperm delivery mechanism,
    - an epiphenomenon of neural firestorms, raging like that Jovian hurricane,
    - a walking disaster,
    - a reverberating echo of the Big Bang,
And banging is all that's on my mind.


You say "don't", but who is that "I" you are addressing?

There is no "I" behind that veneer
       of skin and muscle,
       of cultural stereotypes and conventions,
There is no "soul" – just the flickering of synapses
       of my efficient difference engine,
Weighing in pros and cons,
      optimizing the yield curve
      of my pleasure principle.


Do not fool yourself –
The only thing that's keeping you safe at night
Is the oppressive police state,
Yes, that one  –  paid for by the 1%.

The enforcers of private property,
They are the only guardian angels
That keep back the tide that would gang-rape you.


But what is that to me? I am a modern savage –
Stuck in a Leviathan's cage of criminal justice
(a mere social construct and a chimera),
While curled inside me is the ancient Ichthyosaurus
that used to swim free and tear apart prey without remorse.
And he is ready to unleash his awful roar.


So, you better evolve quick, girl,
And become that warrior goddess Diana,
Swap out the push up bra for a steel breastplate
Before you dismantle the last vestiges of civilization
That shield you from the torrents of unmitigated wrath-filled desire.


The image of Thanatos, the god of death, –
Is tattooed deep on my psyche,
And the hypnotizing music track looping in my head –
It's the new hit by rapper "2 cents".
That's what your life is worth to me –
2 cents, even less than that.


My neurons fire away in their sacred frenzy, –
My visual cortex has locked on to you
My olfactory system has smelled your fear and your demise.


"The right thing"? What a joke.
We who have sucked in Fannon with our mother's milk -
We have crucified the crucifix and the morality that goes with it,
Flushed it all down the toilet with a cheer



Now the new dawn is rising, and you better be quick.
Do not walk a dark street alone,
"There be dragons" – lurking in the shadows,
And one has just coiled up next to you in a bar.


Прим. автора:

1 - (лат.) "Я ставлю тебя в центре мира, чтобы оттуда тебе было удобнее обозревать все, что есть в мире. Я не сделал тебя ни небесным, ни земным, ни смертным, ни бессмертным, чтобы ты сам, свободный и славный мастер, сформировал себя в образе, который ты предпочтешь. Ты можешь переродиться в низшие, неразумные существа, но можешь переродиться по велению своей души и в высшие, божественные".  Пико делла Мирандола, "Речь о достоинстве человека".