The Balm of the Soul

Adjourn and welcome,
And welcome to desire,
and welcome to time held still,
and your mother still holding your hand.

Welcome to a dance with your appetites
and between your rationalities,
fitting steps with feral fictions
and bowing to your ego.

Welcome to bizarre vignettes
and compromising situations with
4th grade teachers, best friends' sisters
and a rotund clown from when you were six.

Welcome to irrational desires,
insatiable anxieties and obscene pleasures.
Welcome to wormwooded forests, purple mushroom spots,
side-winding cobras with your uncle's eyes and teeth.

Welcome to emptiness and boldness and foreboding.
Welcome to bare gums and demonic televangelist rants.
Welcome to the benthic.
Welcome to the night. Welcome.