If the earth was still wild I said
My thoughts linger, in that awkward place
Between the blue and the red
I might let him...take me
If it was still an untamed world
Free of deadlines and schedules
Untilled, unachered, unashamed
I might let him...tear me
If the earth was still wild
If the elements still struck terror
Into the hearts of priests and prophets
If the High Places still wore that familiar stench
The blood of first born sons
I might let him...ravage me
If it was still that time
That time
Before that tyrant time
Ascended
Wresting power from imagination
I might let him...know me
But everything is too tame now
Too clean
Too obligatory
The years will do that
If you let them have their way
But if the earth was still wild
If it still courted chaos
If the air was still thick
With myth and legend
Still drunk on blood and epic
If the sun still mingled
With her early friends
Here among the Ashtaroth
I might drink him in
Like the fallow ground
Swallows the monsoons whole in their season
If it was still that time
Before time snared us
Dissected our days
Hours, minutes, seconds
That time
When time was yet a pauper
I might let him...lay siege to me
Sac my walls
Burn my gates with fire
Plunder me
And lead me away
His captive© October 1998 Joseph Andrew Sapia