I do not feel free to masquerade

I do not feel free to masquerade
by George Manfore

Examine the horses, touch their dreary hems
with womenfolk's crafts mend the swollen holes
Do not allow self to be propelled by hate alone,
nor by the casual ties of friendship.

And if you must weep a little, then weep none.
And if you must weep greatly, then weep a little.
Only belong to the spirit of the town
and speak loyalty to those whose residence is thine own.

Look not at watchful peeping eyes,
for he who shares his bread with you,
is his brother's keeper, performing
a shattering prelude of hopeless confusion
and in the presence of perfection
does not mate his spirit
with death's conception.

And above the great and terrible rocks,
where swim shark-fishes and mermaids
there is a sweet substance
That becomes you when you are bouyant
and soothsaying Phillipians beaurocrats
stand at attention to give homage
to life's denial.

For they are the dead ones, terrified dreamers,
souls made out of stone but dreamt in crystal
and in which nascent shattering
moves in the clock of time it's daily forward
that the night begins and ends with sticks
carefully attuned to accept prayer,
and that God himself paints a straight line
from here to Heaven if you but take his hand.
But never forget it is a battlefield, and we seek
to destroy our winged saviour with a shipwreck
before he reaches his lofty castle on Oedipus' Hill

So too the predation on his father's marks,
I whose aspirations in the potter's mill
bear no remarks.
And in whose canvas is forgotten in the
melding of reverent leaves.
Never again to be reprieved,
our spacious lanterns accept the dead
and lay in heady turmoil among the docks
where rot and petrify
shall happen in their proper course.

So down the workhorse shoes and rents
inheritance of continents
pursue it forth inimitably
and veritably, inevitably
the evidence spans you contentedly.
And serves you forth inheritedly.
And rallies the troops inspiringly
and curves through in life's entirity
Reporting the lover's fire in me!