A stifled hammock swings to and fro
Its colours flickering under orange trees
It creaks and swings in tropical winds
On a numinous line of shade and shore

Bodies dip and dive along this line
Hiding and languid under humid leaves
Then exposed as voices into sudden light
Swollen and enslaved by quest and guilt

I know this landscape in my skin
As I walk with you along this edge
Where madness and beauty interlace
And resonate between fire and gloom

Beyond the wall and through the palms
The land dips through the sun and black
To the sea washing in and out of caves
As evil and good entwine in the streets

The streets and doorways unveil and hide
Priests and nuns and dogs and slaves
As they whisper they bark and then proclaim
They prod the flesh and induce the wound

Like the rabid bite of dog at a heel
Life will lance its arrows at the flesh
It can sear through the veins and burn the mind
And suck every last breath into the dark

Light will come but in unknown form
It will shine through the sewer and the shit
Through the carcass and waste it will blaze
It will rise from what is rejected and cast out