( via / via )

Nobody is that dumb.

"Just when the gods had ceased to be, and the Christ had not yet come, there was a unique moment in history, between Cicero and Marcus Aurelius, when man stood alone." —Flaubert via

On the Russian Persecution of the Jews.

      "setter of tasks"

poltroon wanting nothing more
than follow what he's done before
      mothlamp smear
   wooden remorse
the Joker's phiz · plastered storeys tall

fixture of gilt furltide
foul scarecrow & rare pickpocket
      vap buzzing
   in burdened trees
this hour small · mothlight smirr

cannot stay, stark word
& stalled dollhouse hourglass
      lets me think
   a thorough wreck
looking through · lightning prism

parked cars all newer
on this nowl-filled stoneglebe

"By the late 18th century, it was taken for granted that Ossian was one of the chief poets of Western civilization: he was the favorite poet of Napoleon, admired by Diderot and Goethe, and Thomas Jefferson called him 'the greatest poet who ever existed'."