for a time I almost believed I’d become human her divinity made it possible almost, I felt Schiller’s joy my ears reverberating in the euphonic melodies of ocean. that most human primal sentiment almost I imagined it in my obsidian heart my head still swimming in the warm, wet aloha of her home islands and the memory of manta-rays and ancient turtles but it was a mere glimpse for a moment I imagined I would die one day like everyone else it’s easy to get swept up in the experience even for an old daemon like me and forget one’s true nature but the cold eventually beckons again, the glaciers await and I remember: it’s merely an assignment there’ll be others an interminable line of them and I recall my own end there was no one left but me there never was anyone but me [30-VII-2022]