I Spoke To The Skull

Never realized I had typed out this strange poem from my lost Israel 1998 notebook… it’s translated by chat gtp, from the Dutch.

::

I spoke to the skull

Who are you?
asked the stranger
to the warrior.

I am lauded,
praised and
I don’t know why.

What have you come to do?

I have come searching
for uncharted places.

Why do you think
I can help you with that?

I don’t think so. I know it.
For quite some time.

What will you do if
I take you and let you go?

I will fall until wings
grow from my shoulders,
and then I will float,
until I decide to fly away
from the glow of clashing arms.

Do you give up?

The battle
has given me up,
but spared me.

Why?

Because the sickle of the new moon
closed around me when I hacked
at the belly and the chest of the pregnant woman
with the bayonet on my rifle.

Do you know yourself?

No.

Who are you?

They call me the Skull and I guard the borders.

Were you born?

I was and am where I will be.

Do you believe?

I see.

What do you see?

I see snakes writhing along your spine.

What does that mean?

To me, it means snakes are writhing along your spine.
To you, it probably means that you’re alive.

Somewhat interesting, but what does it mean, exactly?

Interesting! Is it an accurate translation?

Do you recall your situation when you wrote it? The quoted passage put me in mind of Kundalini.

I’m still not sure. I mean that’s not how I write poetry, stuff just comes to me. Sometimes I can decipher what it means instantly, but it has occurred very often that yeas later I’m suddenly omg why didn’t I understand this when I wrote this, that would have been so convenient.

Though in this case, it’s been 27 years and I still don’t know who this Skull guy is, and which borders he defends.

I learned of the kundalini about a year after I wrote this. When I read it back recently of course I made that inescapable connection as well.

If I remember correctly, the situation I was in, was lying on the warm grass somewhere in the kibbutz of Kfar Giladi in the north of Israel. Sometimes bombs would go off in the distance. I jump scared the first time the kibbutz was shaking under a nearby explosion, and was laughed at by a few little kids.

Prolly just coincidences, but this is where I’m at in a chronological reading plan.



Why were you in Israel?

You can’t see the new moon, so it’s interesting it is referred to as sickle.

I was in Kfar Giladi, a kibbutz north in Israel, close to the border in the heights, where I was guided to because of wanting to get away, be safe, but having no money and kittutzim being then a rare solution in the west for that sort of thing. It was good to work hard early mornings.

By the way self does not equal other, self is equal in difference to zero/nothing as other.
Self><Other
Looks better too.
What I mean is, there is direct correspondence between self and other, but no direct translation.

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I like it. It means identical in value, without meaning identity (or opposite of unique, in this sense).

Plus the middle looks like a superhero mask.

Strangely was thinking along the same lines, in a quantum media, that Sartre’s look was demoted to feeling in an age where snakes and other like creatures pre dominated, and after an immense time , Lula’s of struggling exertion lifted that feeling to the heart, and recently traveled that middle placed affect by the top, the top of the Lotus flower.