Shiva on the Plains

and Shiva dancing in the flames,
and Shiva dancing in the flames,
and Shiva telling us through flames,
the world, the world is fire.

hot blood on the running plains,
the young flamekeeper master
killed by old, old hatreds,
the young boy cut and bleeding,
his blood running on blood-red stones,
and Shiva dances in the blaze,
creating, destroying,
the red light of heaven in his eyes,
he smiles forever, engulfed in flames,
the room burning, the house,
timbers blazing up between close walls,
the neighborhood ablaze, the city leering
on the hill, orange light rising through the pall,
smoke spilling across the hills, the valley
pounded by sun, the world itself in flames.

the god looks on and dances,
the red light of heaven in his burning eyes,
smiling at the stones;
beneath his feet, the corpses in the sun,
rooted dismembered trees,
trampled and burning, the perfume of death, reborn,
wild grasses and circling carrion birds,
the soil of the sun,
the young boy cut and scattered,
the cables of his life spread
split across the anvil of the sun,
fire burning over all, hot red sun,
the sky itself aflame,
and Shiva dances in the flames,
and Shiva dancing in the flames,
creating, destroying,
crushing the demons of noise,
dancing in the circling blaze,
a fiery diamond in his grasp,
his hands a flicker of blood,
his hands drumming the beating heart,
drumming the rhythm of the mountains singing,
the soil of the sun,
the lights of heaven in the god’s still eyes.

the world is burning, the world is fire,
the watchfires built high, immense upon
the anvil of the sun, air striking blows like fever,
stark and shaking and gigantic,
vultures gathering around the torch of self-immolation,
feeding on the well-cooked dead,
and Shiva dances in the flames,
staring across the shimmering devastation,
the world a wall of fire, hot blood hiding in the stone,
red tongues licking at the sun,
burning every wall on which the shadows flicker,
destroying what the shaper sees
enscribed within the circle
of the known, knowing what the red eyes read,
destroying all that has been made, what will be made,
weak hands sifting through the bloodied ashes
of the sun, the young boy cut and shattered on the stone,
water pouring through him and becoming steam,
and Shiva smiling in the flames.

it is enough, Lord, it is too much,
and Shiva dances in the flames,
and Shiva dances in the flames,
and Shiva dancing in the flames,
and Shiva telling us through flames,
the world,
the world is fire.