The Euphrates at Babylon

old
gods nor symbols
margin
the next age was to plunge her
mysteriously
decapitated bodies

here
relics of life
beneath
thighs in the abandon of thought
two heads found near them
compact coherence

planes
a builder-prince
rough grain
covered with palm trees and date trees
cross one another
Chaldean theocracy

born
her brilliant nights
it was
instruments of geometry
astronomy was
on the upper terraces

sky
observe the need
bodies
nothing discovers everything
very skeleton
mathematical map

hard
study the stars
tower
of those cuneiform inscriptions
bas-relief king fight
statues with muscle

-- Jeff Wietor