<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><h4 style="margin: 0px 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2;" class="">Hieroglyphic Stairway</h4><div style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; line-height: 24px !important;" class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; line-height: 24px !important;" class="">it’s 3:23 in the morning<br class="">and I’m awake<br class="">because my great great grandchildren<br class="">won’t let me sleep<br class="">my great great grandchildren<br class="">ask me in dreams<br class="">what did you do while the planet was plundered?<br class="">what did you do when the earth was unraveling?<br class=""><br class="">surely you did something<br class="">when the seasons started failing?<br class=""><br class="">as the mammals, reptiles, birds were all dying?<br class=""><br class="">did you fill the streets with protest<br class="">when democracy was stolen?<br class=""><br class="">what did you do<br class="">once<br class="">you<br class="">knew?<br class=""><br class="">I’m riding home on the Colma train<br class="">I’ve got the voice of the milky way in my dreams<br class=""><br class="">I have teams of scientists<br class="">feeding me data daily<br class="">and pleading I immediately<br class="">turn it into poetry<br class=""><br class="">I want just this consciousness reached<br class="">by people in range of secret frequencies<br class="">contained in my speech<br class=""><br class="">I am the desirous earth<br class="">equidistant to the underworld<br class="">and the flesh of the stars<br class=""><br class="">I am everything already lost<br class=""><br class="">the moment the universe turns transparent<br class="">and all the light shoots through the cosmos<br class=""><br class="">I use words to instigate silence<br class=""><br class="">I’m a hieroglyphic stairway<br class="">in a buried Mayan city<br class="">suddenly exposed by a hurricane<br class=""><br class="">a satellite circling earth<br class="">finding dinosaur bones<br class="">in the Gobi desert<br class="">I am telescopes that see back in time<br class=""><br class="">I am the precession of the equinoxes,<br class="">the magnetism of the spiraling sea<br class=""><br class="">I’m riding home on the Colma train<br class="">with the voice of the milky way in my dreams<br class=""><br class="">I am myths where violets blossom from blood<br class="">like dying and rising gods<br class=""><br class="">I’m the boundary of time<br class="">soul encountering soul<br class="">and tongues of fire<br class=""><br class="">it’s 3:23 in the morning<br class="">and I can’t sleep<br class="">because my great great grandchildren<br class="">ask me in dreams<br class="">what did you do while the earth was unraveling?<br class=""><br class="">I want just this consciousness reached<br class="">by people in range of secret frequencies<br class="">contained in my speech<br class=""></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; font-variant-ligatures: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2; line-height: 24px !important;" class=""><br class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Drew Dellinger</p></body></html>