Ezekiel’s Scorched Redoubt
A Combustion Ring Persists,
Negotiated Heat Contained Within Stubborn Stone,
Ashen Grain Settling In Quiet Strata,
Combustion Sediment Remembering Flame.
Hide Once Breathing Reduced To Parchment,
Skin Translated Into Speaking Surface,
Inscription Surviving Only As Thermal Remains.
If Nothing Observes,
Does Existence Idle,
Or Continue Without Witness?
The Road-Worn Witness Pauses
At The Perimeter Of Arranged Structure,
Entering Unauthorized Operation,
Maintaining A Distance That No Longer Convinces.
A Lateral Displacement Crosses Exposed Ground,
Pressure Without Body,
Lifting Loose Parchment Toward Vacant Sky,
Tilting Prophecy Without Permission.
The Page Trembles With Derision,
Half Command Erased By Patient Flame,
Half Instruction Awaiting Breath And Tattered Vision.
Matter Precedes Meaning.
At The Very Least, That Is What They Told Me.
Carbon Scatter Rises Briefly,
Flakes Of Burnt Reflection Spiraling Upward,
Then Settling Among Smoke-Fallen Residue.
Nearby—Nearly—A Wire-Basketed Frame Tilts,
Yet Appears To Abide:
A Load-Bearing Cage Of Bent Commerce,
Its Forward Rotation Denied,
Another Artifact Embedded Beneath It
In Reluctant Adaptation.
Function Survives Intention.
An Upright Polymer Sentinel Stands Nearby In Quiet Contempt,
An Ample, Hollow Torso Of Molded Vacancy,
Human Geometry Absent Circulation,
A Dark Droplet Fixed Upon Its Chest.
Red Transfers Across Synthetic Surface
When Touched.
The Question Arrives Before Ownership Does.
Am I Venting Outward
Through Compromised Biological Housing,
Or Receiving Inward A Foreign Substance?
If I Am Manifested In An Image,
What Reflects—
No, What Sustains Reflected Form,
And What Fractures First,
Fearful Of The Goddess
And All That We Are Adorned With?
A Fractured Reflective Plane Rests Alongside The Heat Ring,
A Circumference Of Searing Intent,
Light Returning In Divided Segments,
Secreting Dividends.
Face Rendered Into Uncertain Versions—
One Aligned,
One Elongated,
One Without Stable Center.
Which Configuration Carries Origin?
The Invisible Transit Moves Again,
Carbon Scatter Crossing Mirrored Surface,
Multiplying Likeness Beneath Displaced Light,
The Molded Vacancy Entering Reflection Behind Him.
Synthetic Outline Beside Breathing Assembly.
The Reflection Refuses To Remain Separate.
Revelation Stalls In Petulant Pauses,
The Fractured Plane Pandering—
Folding—No, Withholding Command.
Silence Assumes Authority.
And So Surrender Replaces Revelation.
I Must Obey The Man, The Monster, The God
Assembled Within My Meager Mind.
A Loosened Shard Separates From Fractured Reflection,
Narrow, Obedient, Diagnostic.
If Truth Resides In Structure,
Structure Must Be Opened.
The Glass Edge Parts Living Material,
Red Emerging Along Compromised Casing,
Warm Biological Medium Meeting Gray Particulate.
He Studies The Incision
Through Fractured Return Of Image,
Expecting Mechanism,
Expecting Rotation,
Expecting Confirmation Of Engineered Origin.
Nothing Engages.
Only Circulating Mortal Blood,
Unregulated Organic Matter—
Matter, Not Metal—
Pain Interrupting Imagined Design.
Consciousness May Be Malfunction.
Or Function Misidentified.
The Surviving Parchment Trembles In His Hand,
Hide Pressed Back To Hide,
Ink Returning To Flesh.
He Seals The Wound With Sacred Surface,
Tape Binding Revelation To Failing Casing,
Doctrine Becoming Compression,
Prophecy Becoming Repair.
For Care And Carbon Scatter.
Thus Flesh Bandages Flesh—
Repair Without Revelation,
Continuation Without Command.
Combustion Sediment Settles Again,
Burnt Reflection Dimming Divided Likeness,
Systems Continuing Without Revised Instruction.
If Existence Has No Operator,
Why Does Motion Persist—
Persist… Insist…
No, Continue?
The Bearer Of Remaining Miles Sits
Within Unfinished Architecture,
Monitoring Internal Operation
For Signal, For Hum, For Verdict.
None Arrive.
Ashen Grain Drifts Across Exposed Structure,
Smoke-Fallen Matter Recording Passage
Without Preference.
The Upright Sentinel Remains Without Verdict.
The Bent Lattice Refuses Movement.
The Fractured Plane Reflects Only Divided Form,
Carbon Scatter Softening Its Geometry,
Light Returning Without Explanation.
And The One Who Arrives After Endings Remains Seated,
Bandaged In Salvaged Revelation,
Bleeding Proof Into Damaged Belief,
Awaiting Instruction—
No, Verification.
Whether Existence Obeys Command,
Or Merely Persists
Because Stopping
Was Never Installed.