Between manhattan and baghdad
skip largent

at the End-O-Time tavern,
kilroy and ereshkigal play darts,
seven look-of-death-darts each,
feathered with eyelids of the stillborn,
they play for beers scooped out of standing pools
of barley, fermented 5000 years.

behind the one-way mirror of the abzu,
enki the great proprietor
signals me to put on headphones - listen, listen - -

laughter from the nethercorner, inanna & greenspan
sipping black&tans, her voice, rustling of glass reeds,
something about “ from the mouths of mollusks.”
they continue in flirtatious binary fingertalk,
sequencing, re-sequencing -
this little piggy this, that little piggy that.

over the bar, gilgy & rumsy, reconnoitering immortality as ever,
lay brick upon brick in a new model of earth
as modular military radar, one that kills and creates
in single flip of switch.
smart-armored ellil, waiting,
offing ants with his evolutionary thumb.

over an 8-ball shot, the greatNeb drones,
“ i can no longer ignore a theory in which death
takes a place beside gravity & the weak/strong forces.”

behind the one-way mirror of the abzu,
enki the great proprietor
signals me to look, look far - -

on 360 global monitors, sleepwalking eyes
are replacing corpuscles with pixels, adrift on gameshows,
a frame by frame emptying of intellect.
screens go static,
the brain that could boil water
suddenly awash
in its own melted ice-cap.

“ but enki,’ i protest, “for where
shall i put forth sail? “
“ for the gods, “ he says,
“but first say a prayer for humankind.”