PAGE 4 - N.C. ESSAY
O0n0Sis Two ^ Angevine
in the beginning god created
the heaven and the earth and the
earth was without form and void
and darkness was upon the face
of the deep and the spirit of god
moved upon the face of the
waters and god said let there be
light and there was light and god
saw the light that it was good
threads of smoke twisted up
from the fire into knots that broke
and frayed upward still to mingle
with the smoke of moonlight
beside the fire sat a man with a
stick in his hand held out to be
licked by the jumping flames his
feet were seared with the warmth
of the fire but he didnt draw them
away his whole body quivered
with a permanent kind of cold
that he had at last learned to
ignore like the cold the sterile
silence too had lost its power to
themselves up to his hunger and
he could torture the earth into
giving forth life from her
decaying carcass his fingertips
were the beginning and the end of
all life all life that sprouted from
death and decay
and in the absence of other
sound the crackle of his fire was
monstrous as he lay beside it in
sleep
visions moved over his eyes
visions of people marching
thousands millions of people
filling up the land their faces
grotesque moises of distortion
their skin sagging loose as if it
were dripping their bones
people crowding mashing toward
him below him never touching
him and he Anubis leading them
driving them to the edges of the
land to spill over into the rushing
chewed garbage onto the ground
and left it to the worms
time passed
night’s cold became harsher till
neither fire nor shelter was
warmth enough to keep the cold
from creeping into his very bone
marrow he made his fires bigger
he filled the crevices of his
shelter with hard packed dirt and
mud but the cold was cruel and no
living thing found protection
from raped nature the breasts
that still existed in their sickly
bodies were overcome by the cold
and their bodies froze and
became brittle like the charred
frames of trees the man watched
the beasts die and horror clung
to him his source of survival was
being yanked from his grasp he
built for the beasts a shelter like
his own but he could not keep
them inside its protection for in
the daylight they wandered the
land snatching themselves thus if
they did not return to the shelter
at night the cold devoured them
in the bitterness of frozen night
the man crept from his shelter to
that ofthe beasts to see if any had
returned from the day’s search
for food they were huddled all
together clinging to the warmth
that each offered the other en
vying their closeness the man
entered their place and lay down
with them savoring the warmth
of life nearby and when sleep was
ended and faint light guided hk
way he went out over &e land in
search of a skin to cover himself
and warm himself while he
wandered in the grey light of day
as his feet pres^ into the
earth he was aware of the feel of
it neither hard nor s(rft but tightly
packed and cold lu'eakable but
there was a warmth burning deep
in the bowels of the earth sim
mering just beneath the siuiace
that h& calloused feet could feel
through the ache of cold the
presence the idea of warmth
made him spread his lips in a
grotesque sn^e that caused his
lips to crack and split and bleed
and he tasted the richness of the
blood that trickled under his
tongue
he came to a place where a long
dead beast lay on its side its
carcass sharp with visible bones
its flesh and substance melting
off ^e tarnished bones dissolving
into dust returning to the eartti
that which the earth had lent to
life he circled the beast surveying
for patches of skin that he might
use to cover his own body and
where the carcass was most
severely decayed he saw a patch
of something green pushing
through the ground and bent
down to touch it it was life it was
a living plant reaching out of
earth’s womb reaching for
sunlight reaching through the
decay of the carcass that gave it
birth and life sprang forth from
death and now life pushed
through and replaced spent death
time passed and as time passed
the earth pushed her life through
the crust of ground that divided
the man from herself and sprays
of light strayed over the land
coaxing her to yield and moisture
wet the parch^ land and rivers
small and timid began
pilgrimages toward the silent
seas the twisted and bent tree
skeletons straightened them
selves and adorned their barren
limbs with sprouts of green
blossom and the earth rejoiced in
her embellishment and the man
was glad in the deepest parts of
himself seeing the earth give of
herself and nourish her offspring
and delight in productivity he
bathed in the clear waters letting
waves splash over him and cover
him and feign to smother him
then free him again and the clean
coldness thrilled him his eyes
followed the outline of the earto’s
contours and the surface was
growing thick with green
pleasure he smelled the
sweetness of growing things filled
his hungry lungs with their
richness and tiie wild creatures
whose skin had but gripped their
bones filled their bellies and grew
fat to fatten the man and he stiU
walked over the land digging his
food out of the earth and taking
his food from the fatness of the
beasts and taking the skin from
those that died and covering
himself against the cold and
against his nakedness and even in
the absence of shame his
nakedness was covered
and as nature grew more
brazen and greenness flourished
and blossomed into splurges of
color food became plentiful a
restlessness came over the man
he was comfortable and growing
lazy he felt desire for work for
sport he began to ramble spen
ding the daylight travelling over
the land discovering new life
following paths of green growth
seeking darkness or barrenness
wanting to squeeze life from the
earth with tiie stren^ of his
hands wanting feel again the cold
of lifelessness and to force even
that lifelessness to surrender
nourishment to him
his angry hands desperate in
their idleness tore branches from
trees razed the stubble of
beginning leaves his teeth ripped
off the bark and ground the wood
and as the wood splintered off the
branch whittled to a point his
moulii stretched over his teeth in
a smile of realization he searched
the ground for a small sharp
stone and finding one he began to
shave the end of the stick shar
pening &e point the muscles in
his arm tightened tired tighten^
and perspiration beaded on his
face his arm at last ceased its
rhythmic motion and his fingers
folded around a sharp projectile
murky evening draped tte
uplifted arms of trees a faint
glimmer of moonglow sifted
through cloudlace to sprinkle
itself over the ground deep
groaning sounds of animals
rumbled over the air and the
man stood a faceless colossus
brooding in the dark
an animal pawed at the groimd
snort^ at the ominous moon-
shadow charged defiantly
through the darkness challenging
the luiknown threat the m^
crouched waiting hidden in
darkness stifling the rasping
-Desegregation-
The Supreme Court again ruled
that schools must desegregate,
which led to more violence and
unrest in both the Norto and
South.
Everyone threatened to strike
or did so - even pro football
players.
The economy dipped, rose,
dipped, rose, dipped . . .
1970. The Year of the Rip-Off.
-Divisions-
A year in which the good old
U.S. of A. fumbled and crumbled
on (with the rest of mankind).
Nixon is President, Agnew sits, in
sound of his breathing listening
waiting lurking the animal
challenged but not confronted
gave a snort lifted its body up on
hind legs and hurled itself
through the dark the man too
leapt into the night shrieking
wildly and plunged his weapon
forward into flesh and the beast
shrieked and kicked crashed to
the ground twitched until death
carried him from his pain and the
man felt his body wrenched away
from his killing self in the second
of orgasmic delight when the
blood spiu"ted from the living
heart of the beast and onto his
hands and he felt the rush of
blood the warmth and rich
thickness of it as it gushed oyer
him showering covering him with
the blood of murdered life he
lifted his red drenched hands to
his lips he tasted the blood the
taste was bitter and sweet and
thick and he gagged on the
thickness and let the blood trickle
over his teeth and stain them with
its redness he stood over the dead
animal conqueror victor master
of life his wiU was stronger than
all animals he was stronger than
all animals for he had weapons
secret instruments of death that
were his power and his heart
grew big and he recognized
power he looked down again at
the beast his power had
destroyed and he felt pleasure he
knelt beside the carcass drew out
the pointed weapon from the flesh
and split open the body he hegan
to cut through for meat and as he
cut the blood of the murdered
beast flowed onto the earth and
the ground was wet with mur
dered blood and when he had
meat the man went apart from
the beast and the smell of new
death and made a fire the smoke
poured upward staining leaves
and screening the faint moon and
the man sat separate and apart
from the destruction the work of
his own hands watching the
movement of his stick as it was
licked by the flames and the piece
of butchered animal hung on the
end of the stick slowly toasting
into meat and the blood of the
animal and the smoke of the fire
mingled and rose skyward like
the smell of sacrifice
mealy-mouth glory, at his right
hand. The war drags on. The land
is polluted. The straights hate the
longhair s. The whites hate the
niggers. (Some of) the longhairs
and niggers are picking up guns.
“Off The Pigs!” is the cry of the
day.
Out of this rubble we try to
make a sane and peaceful world.
But the time is passing us by. And
perhaps the only real salvation of
the next crucial decade will be
that we might create a next
generation who can evolve far
ther than we, who can forgive and
somehow correct the tragic
mistakes of those who lived
before them.
oppress and in its sterility was
without definition neither the
chaffing sound of man nor the
gallantly consistent whispers of
nature nor the deadly clamor of
technology broke into the
stillness to set the night vibrating
with life thick syrupy vapors
clung to the charred skeletons of
trees scent of burnt and decaying
oncelife oozed through the
darkness like bellyslithering
snakes through jungle earth
stank with the vapors and the
decay barren lifeless burnt out
and always the silence heavy
with gloom hung on the night
but the man sat separate apart
from the desolation watching the
movement of his stick on whose
point was impaled a bloody piece
of butchered animal slowly
toasting into meat
(all this had come to pass in the
years centuries aeons since the
earth had been ravished broken
prostituted by raging men her
purity her fruit her Ufe wrested
from her in the name of progress
her complexion pocked with
battlescars her life sources
polluted with rubbish her womb
clogged with poison she had
shrunk from the bloom of
productive youth and had
shriveled into wasted old age
but revenge was granted her
violent cruel genocidal revenge
she rose up from her death state
and choked out all the life that
bled her and the earth was
without form and void and the
earth rendered up life)
and in his separateness he had
strength for in his separateness
he had survived the holocaust
neither fleeing nor fighting but
accepting following the flow of
destruction and he began to
divide that which was of himself
and that which was not and the
beasts those few haggard
diseased beasts that could still
carry their slimey selves over the
land he kept apart from himself
close together so that he could
watch them and maneuver them
and finally eat of their flesh for
there was no other food and in his
separateness he became mighty
for the beasts were at his com
mand were forced to yield
seas and the seas were filled with
death and became solid and the
land became dry and barren and
shadows of the dead rose like
grey vapors to haunt the land and
he walked the land gliding over it
without touching it and ^
deadmen vapors called out to him
their screams echoing in the
barrenness of the land and he
walked by them and would not
bear them and they at last faded
into the mist and the earth was
without form and void
he s napped awake from his
dream shaking off its clam
miness a vague dawn of grey
light seeped through the skeleton
trees he arose afraid shivering
with terror and the cold of the
sunless morning and he walked
over the land to a place where a
clump of skeletonfrees bent and
twined around each other in a
sinister dance of death he
chopped at branches with his
hand and the brittle boughs broke
easily he tore the married
branches from each other and
ripped off the outer shell of decay
when the ground was littered
with limbs he began to lay them
carefully one by one across the
tops of the tninks that stood
withered and lifeless a phalanx of
brittle vulnorability weary he
backed off to rest and to observe
hiS' handiwork a shelter a
structure to protect him from the
demon spirits of his dreams
wakefulness lingered as the
weak glimmer of daylight was
absorbed by the gloom he wan
dered and came upon the carcass
from which last night’s meal had
been taken sight of it reminded
him that his stomach was empty
and his body was weak with his
fingernails he cut and ripped at
the meat until he had a chunk
that Would satiate his emptiness
already worms and rot were
beginning to consume what was
left of the animal few more days
of wandering would be satisfied
by the meat from this animal he
put the chunk of meat to his lips
and sucked the juices from it then
tore off some with his teeth and
weakened and softened it in his
mouth the taste made him retoh
his stomach caved he spat out the
1970
Continued From Page 1