Prudence in Hell 015

Poussin in Parnassus

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For unknown reasons, Yourcenar’s L'Œuvre au noir was translated into English as The Abyss, 
not a misnomer but an adaptation, 
a manœuvre of the humours 
dug into to the dregs of transmutation: 
as above, so below
the bloodcount belongs to the living. 
As above, so below the threshold.

As those who are about to die and those
who love them know, hospital time
entrails its own phenomenonology. 
It is a beating in code compliance. 
It oxbows into Liminality and Liability,
the twin lakes of misfire.

The only light comparable to that 
of hospitals is found in malls;
designed to lose track of time,
an undress rehearsal for eternity, or reality. 

It is never clearly any time and life goes on, until. 

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Nicolas Poussin. Landscape with Man Killed by a Snake. 1648. Oil on canvas. 118.20 cm x 197.80. National Gallery, London.