Enzo Cordello: ‘A Parodic Original of the Species’

A Parodic Original of the Species

(from “Modern Ruins”, a work-in-progress)

“Midway along the journey of his life

Virgil woke to find himself in a dark wood.

This, more precisely, had begun long before

Midway, but in the loam, foam and warp of time,

what started as a misty wood, a child in twilight

had now grown into a black forest in daylight.

Lions, leopards and wolves were becoming extinct

So none of these really crossed his path.

Man’s inhumanity to animals guaranteed this.

The animal sins were in men, as they had

always been, and lions, leopards and wolves now

feared man. The time of the concrete jungle.

Virgil awoke, to the thud of axes cutting

down much of the dark wood anyhow, 

and his ears buzzing with electric saws clearing

A path to the unknown. Or into a darker forest.

Sins had become a guilt trip. And to have guilt

was becoming a sin. Something lurking in the

Roots of the black forest. Cut it down, out.

There was…