intoning primordial edicts
(cast when time was hanging in the air,
cerebria forming from fumaroles,
skies red, ashes falling)
the three voids visit;
heat of earth wrote these texts,
gave us words for living –
and in still dark caves
formed from lava flows
we sailors mark on walls,
articulate the paeans
rich with flourish, ligature –
glyphs arrayed in columns and rows,
warriors dressed for battle –
italic phalanxes
reaching into the glooms
our lamp-glimmers shadowed lips
intoning character after character,
revering the voids’ locution