Brandon Pitts

ELOI ELOI LAMA SABACHTHANI  

for my Father and Luciano Iacobelli 

a word

spoken into flesh 

caused my being

  

like hum to static

or consciousness returning 

 

beatitude will fall softly 

to lavish this sinner 

  

with my arms pulled out

I know you are lofty 

 

palm to palm

east to west

my thoughts have traveled  

 

be it millennia ago

or centuries into the future

through folding patterns in time

 

desire gave me body,

and longing 

pumps this heart

 

 a nail

to prevent these hands 

from reaching

 

thorns

to keep my eye

from seeing 

 

beyond this life

to a time

where you put finger to lips and whispered,

 

"shhh... you only have to remember 

that you are precious

and we are all born from love"

 

 but that far back 

I can no longer see

 

this earth and wood 

limited by lifetimes

are nailed to my feet

 

leaving questions so simple 

the answers 

are impossible to perceive 

 

 so I gaze out

from this cross

and see the sun illuminating clouds

 

highlighting colours 

blues 

sepia and white

  

in my visions I see storms

auras of molecules 

that compose space and define shape

 

some moving 

some pulsing 

some breathe through infinite space 

 

my corpuscles

stars

whose light warms planets

my thoughts produce people

who enter the world

through mothers

  

and those who will stand while lying down

are those who will travel in time

 

and those who will travel while sick

will travel back lifetimes

  

can my sweat create an ocean

or just salt

like the sea?

 

will my blood carry hadrons

each cell

its own galaxy

 

where emotions create life

some fantastic light 

and some cancers

 

thoughts like electric pulses 

spilling out 

and spiralling down

 

into a slow winding helix

leaving

my internal eye

 

swirling into to a space

where lifetimes are spent

crossing a two second divide 

 

only to flatten into cubes

until my last inhale

pulls it into a thin hued line


where I will transfigure   

and each particle

will shine

 

like passengers 

to polar caps

a trillion light years away

 

from a millisecond 

in a history

so ancient 

it was forgotten 

only to be remembered 

before it takes place

on distant banks 

the same shore 

in some other vicinity

 

where my anguish 

releases storms

 

my hour

true meaning

 

and those who would destroy it

are loved with equal measure

to those who would build it 

 

for each time I strike in anger

my fist hits 

the prison wall

 

and each time I expound laughter

I share in the life

of a beloved child

 

for if I find it 

in myself to forgive

the universe will know joy

 

then I will understand peace

and my light  

will never expire 

 

but transform 

beyond this final breath

to the very last ripple

 

at the centre of time

to the experience 

I have chosen

 

 therein lies the traveler 

for we are all different degrees

of the same light 

and by giving me life

you have forced me 

to make mountains

 

and to my Father's hopes

his expectations

will create this situation in me

 

as I am made in his image

am I a god

like he?

 

and if I leave this trial

will everything I've created 

cease?

 
is this  

how a small creature

becomes king?

 

then this I will do 

because 

you asked me