Saint Antony: ‘The dead are pale, faded, they
stock each other, live in the eyes of the past, bewildered, and profound—‘
The ascetic sees demons in the shape of
beasts, and the remnants of the Gates of Ctesiphon, are piled all about them—
Their black cloaks are fastened by dead
men’s bones!
They flog one another, and laugh at their
aching limbs and burning caresses…
Their hair fastened by vipers, and the
face of: Cain, Sodom, and Pilate, Nero stares at Antony, as Judas yelps:
“Thanks to me God saved the world!”
Those faces are made of wolf-skin, they
are envious of Antony’s dog’s bone meal.
The old ones, older than written time,
from the pre-Adamic era, are all dried up, like mummies—
Their glances dull; they have long white
eyebrows they are eating grasshoppers, and at the same time, as their mouths
quiver exclaim:
‘Come, come, be swift about it, there are
no crimes here, the need here below is of the love of God, and He is gone! We
are made for the Devil!’
Knouphis lights some argil lamps, gives
light to Antony’s nightmare, more like a vision now—
The light smothers the long legged
fluttering mosquitos…
Antony’s mind is fragmented, his thoughts
twisted, imps are trying to rope and tie him from the windings of entrails!
There is no manifestation, not today, not
like other days.
One of the old ones snatches the bone from
Antony’s dog.
And the nightmare that had emerged as if
through a hole in the wall, and so it disappears.
No: 4774/6-27-2015
