… and Polyphemus replied, “Nobody is killing me.”
What is meant by nobody
when nobody’s a hero?
Everything is nothing
when multiplied by zero.
You suck the bones of appetite
and chew the fibres of regret,
but have no sense of vacancy
until there’s nothing left.
And what is nothing really?
Just multiply by zero –
nobody is anywhere
when nobody’s a hero.
We face the time when life in time
enters the everlasting:
the spells that bind us are the spells
of our own casting.
If we are tempted to the rocks
or sucked into the ocean’s throat,
we cannot fool the boatman
nor build our own boat.
Unpublished
Stephen Halliday 