Evolved Reptile Brain From Arrakis
Evolved reptile brain wants to burn it all down.
Evolved reptile brain plateaus
at the spilling edge of nihilism
the real reason
Atlantis took a dive.
Big Reptile prayed for the meteor.
Big Reptile
got the meteor.
The simplest of details
like that little detail
left unattended
lying
in the corner
on the floor.
So many cannot rest
until this detail is secured.
Some move on to the other details
lying in other corners
they continually forget about.
We make so many excuses for our heroes
that we don’t make for our friends.
We make too many excuses to our friends
because we don’t imagine them as heroes.
I don’t know what it is
about tonight
but this feels
like one of those
very rare nights
when everyone is going to be ok.
And I don’t mean like “Oklahoma” Ok…
…or maybe I do.
I’m not actually an authority
on what “ok” is.
It took me a long time to learn
I want the fucked up horrible dreams.
They make me feel relevant.
I get that these are a blessing.
I get that I’m lucky
they are only dreams.
I promise you are safe with me.
Please don’t hate me for that.
It’s too easy to say our masculinity is toxic.
It is actually much worse than that.
It’s a one-way ticket into the abyss.
They didn’t make a map for the way out.
But sooner or later we all go in.
About the Author: About the Author: Paul Corman-Roberts is the author of the forthcoming full length poetry collection “Bone Moon Palace” forthcoming in Spring 2021 from Nomadic Press. Corman-Roberts is an original co-founder of the Beast Crawl Lit Fest in Oakland CA where he organizes and teaches.
Image Credit: Digital art adapted from Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, London: Academic Press, [etc.],1833-1965. Image courtesy of the Biodiversity Heritage Library
As It Ought To Be 