Banana Palace

from “Across the Sea”

We wanted arrival to be instant
because we didn’t want to be separate
                  from what we loved.

Wireless, weightless, and omniscient is how we
refined our machines—

We had a dream

that we could smash the bans
of matter and time and
                  still be alive—

Was that the soul, wishing

we would invent the body
out of existence,
                  so many of us now

                  enthralled by doom…

The students peer so deep into their handheld screens they
                  look like Diviners.

Each one
                  a scrying Sibyl at the world’s

end—
                  scribbled-on leaves thrown out of their caves

                  and into the wind—

The only part of the Epic
I make them read, just after
                  the crew is borne ashore, but before

                  the walk amongst the dead—

The part between.

Where there’s a body, agonized by light.

                  And someone lost.

                  And a query—