«I shall then suppose ... some evil genius not less powerful than deceitful, has employed his whole energies in deceiving me.»

DESCARTES, Meditations (1641).

behold a human.

born in Sarmatia,
between the Black Sea and the Caspian
beyond the Tanais.
in Persia reigned
where with incense and spices traded
and ten children of many mothers produced.
emperors he threatened
the Ganges he dried up,
the Great Wall of China he crossed
and Mongolia also,
he vanquished four of the Seven Summits.
emerged from Roman flames
he fought in Macedonia
alongside Alexander the Great
and legend has it that he also experienced
the ride on the relentless Bucephalus.

one of the sponsors
of the Royal Library of Alexandria, was he.

swimming, he circled Atlantis,
exhausted he fell
in a Bronx-Westport dump
and ended up at the hands
of a snuffling

Puerto Rican...

what is this breath
of moral
of the body
that rots?

Antero de Alda

July 2011