{"id":46797,"date":"2023-06-18T16:19:37","date_gmt":"2023-06-18T23:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/?post_type=article&p=46797"},"modified":"2023-06-26T13:45:10","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T20:45:10","slug":"augustine","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/","title":{"rendered":"Augustine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our heads are full of shadows:<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>the bitter and betrayed,
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>lovers, accusers, avatars,
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>the friend who drank
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>phantom after phantom,
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>the lost extremities
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>who wander
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>the heads they leave behind.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>We are not ourselves
\n\u2014\u2014——————–\u2014<\/span>without them.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I dreamt once of a man
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>with a body so sheer,
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I draped him
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>over a cage of birds.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>Goodnight, I sang,
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>sentimental and afraid.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I draped him on a mirror.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I wrote on him,
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>bird, mirror, friend:<\/em>
\nto help with the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I drank to my friend, ghost
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>after ghost, casualty of a spirit
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>of permission
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>and self-reproach.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I do not know
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>where pleasure leads,
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>only that it blows us up
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>like balloons,
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>and then we drift.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>Breathing shallows.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>We wake inside the decade of our birth.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>Will I ever leave my nightmares
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>to the winter garden
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>where they melt at dawn
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>into the clear
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>bright features of unease.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>Was it the Holy Spirit who said,
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>the suppression of doubt
\n\u2014\u2014——————–\u2014<\/span>breeds monsters.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>Was it my friend.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>I want to tell a ghost out there,
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>please stay.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>Kneel and blow the embers.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>And in that moment, I am
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>not the flesh
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>that suffers.
\n\u2014\u2014———-\u2014<\/span>But a rise in the fire.
\n\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span>A parcel of breath with smoke inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Bruce Bond<\/strong> is the author of thirty-four books, most recently including Patmos<\/em> (Juniper Prize, UMass), Behemoth<\/em> (New Criterion Prize), Liberation of Dissonance<\/em> (Schaffner Award for Literature in Music, Schaffner), and Invention of the Wilderness<\/em> (LSU).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I do not know \/ where pleasure leads,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":46812,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"issuem_issue":[7201],"issuem_issue_categories":[20],"issuem_issue_tags":[205,585],"class_list":["post-46797","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","issuem_issue-issue-117","issuem_issue_categories-poetry","issuem_issue_tags-bruce-bond","issuem_issue_tags-augustine"],"yoast_head":"\nAugustine - Image Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Augustine - Image Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I do not know \/ where pleasure leads,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Image Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/imagejournal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-26T20:45:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/cristian-siallagan-kaQ4qTvZqVY-unsplash-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@image_journal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/\",\"name\":\"Augustine - Image Journal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/cristian-siallagan-kaQ4qTvZqVY-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-18T23:19:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-26T20:45:10+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/cristian-siallagan-kaQ4qTvZqVY-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/cristian-siallagan-kaQ4qTvZqVY-unsplash-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2048,\"height\":1536},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/augustine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Articles\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/article\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Augustine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/imagejournal.org\/\",\"name\":\"Image Journal\",\"description\":\"Art. 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