Pope Petrus Secundus
© Surazeus
2025 12 17

Wandering in cluttered Museum of Fate,
Pierrot gazes at portraits of dead clowns,
tears freezing into lucent Pierres de Lune
that gleam with rainbows trapped in gem of time,
then pantomimes his tragic comedy,
pining with love for graceful Columbine.

Descending in cave of Trophonius
with cheese wheel, honeycomb, and jar of wine,
Pierrot searches grim darkness of despair
through underground of moral prejudice,
but finds nothing more in cold heart of doom
than star-eyed lizards on purple mushrooms.

Holding Torch of Freedom and Book of Tales,
Columbine searches Museum of Fate
to find the spirit who had called her name,
but finds only white mask of Lucifer
that Pierrot would wear to woo her love,
so she hangs it in Gallery of Popes.

Returning from cave of Trophonius
with Crown of Thorns Jesus wore on the cross,
Pierrot climbs stairway to the Parthenon
to offer Janus moonstones as a bribe,
who ushers him in Museum of Fate
to find Pope Petrus lounging on the throne.

Heart beating with desperation of the hawk,
Columbine runs through endless maze of myths,
past startled idols of dead popes and kings,
to enter Hall of Mirrors just in time
to see Pope Petrus bare sharp vampire teeth
and leap to attack innocent Pierrot.

As avatar of the disenfranchised,
buffoon outside norms of society,
disillusioned foe of idealism,
lonely sufferer of symbolic sorrow,
Pierrot is the alienated observer
struck by mysteries of the human condition.

Soaring swift on angelic wings of love,
Columbine snatches bow from Cupidon
and fires sharp arrow of Platonic Love
that strikes undead heart of the vampire pope
who explodes into frantic butterflies
that flutter halo round head of Pierrot.

Crowned Pope Petrus Secundus of Gothinia,
Pierrot, with Columbine, in red silk robes,
parades before large cheering crowds of Roma,
then enters gold-walled Museum of Fate
where he presides on jeweled Judgment Throne
just as a meteor strikes the Earth with fire.

surazeus.blogspot.com/2025/02/…

Orpheus kneels before Pope Peter II and offers Sibylline Books he dug up from the tomb of Jupiter.

#Poetry #Poem #Pastoral #Necropastoral #MetaModernism #MetaRomanticism #NewSublimity #NewRomanticism #AmericanDream #Cinemism #Existentialism #Surrealism #NegativeCapability #NewGnosticism #MetaRealism #NewTranscendentalism #Astarism