Gershwin's gay garish Gotham
today has joined the ranks
of Gaia's tragicopoles,
London, Dresden, Gdansk

for evermore.

An unhallowed razor,
thrust,
so savagely,

into the apple`s core.

But please,

spare us the braying
of the semioticians of symmetry.

Let them stay huddled,
paretically,
in Zeno's corner,
ruminating,
endlessly,
on the etymology and etiology
the means/ends mission statements
of "horror," and "counterhorror,"
lateral, collateral, and full frontal,
the feudal bloodline
of our selfish genes,
even unto the Big Bang,

while we chew instead
on whether high-tech sociopathy
and low-tech superstition
were indeed always slated
to win the day,
eventually,
in life's no-sin, no-sum
game
of Gaussian roulette.
 
 
 
  Coda: Homage to William of Ockham
(Or, The Hazards of Passive Exposure To Involuntary Co-Martyrdom)

our forebears had it right
the fewer gods the better
monody just undershot
the optimum by
one