From my mouth came forth a torrent of snakes,

Black amassed and striking-

Some silver in the dawn.

From my eyes a river of red birds,

And through this river

a stream of raven from the left,

And crow from the right-

Led by a sparrow and a dove.

From my cheeks erupted ants and bees of all kinds,

Coursing down like an army across my chest,

From which sprung forth a trophy of deer,

Followed by a great procession of horses of every breed,

Whose manes were of fire

And hooves of flint

And obsidian eyes that a star in each was held.

From my wrists came forth all manner of gecko and skink,

And monitors fell from my clavicles,

like great pods of fork tongued fruit.

From my throat came dragonfly and cicada

In number that would blacken half the sky.

From my ears broke schools of fish

That circled my body like a storm,

And sharks were loosed from my armpits to follow them.

Lions tore from my loins,

And crocodiles from my anus.

Frogs came from my penis

and covered the ground beneath me.

My upper body rippled and shuddered

And took on the form of a tree.

My lower body hardened and shook

And took the form of soil.

My hair changed to geese,

And the geese to ducks,

And the ducks to swans-

And the swans all cried as one my name!

And the sun fled from me to hide in the bud of a red rose,

And the name of that rose;

And the name, of that rose.

https://soundcloud.com/benjamin-wild/name-of-the-rose

Image- Juan Gatti.