An Ode to Siesta

Siesta is a visit to the oracle
Up a mountain road from the coast.
Siesta gave Colleridge Xanadu,
Lewis Wonderland and Lennon the arriving Sun King.
Siesta is a healing flood,
It is the resurrection of Priapus.
Siesta is chasing a goat into an olive grove.
It is tea on the lawn with Oscar Wilde,
Siesta is communing with the gods.
It is golden Apollo-harping in the Zeus-palace of the cumulo-duvet.

Siesta is reclining in shade while Pan’s pipes play in the windblown pines
Or Menalcus sings an eclogue.
Siesta showed Horace Bacchus singing wise verses to the nymphs,
And it gives the Sicilians longevity.
It is the staccato chirping of Aphrodite’s sparrows and the supra-celestial chattering of swallows
Echoing in the windless lazy square.
It is knowing that beyond the shuttered window someone is sailing on the blue sea.

Look: a living hologram of Socrates emerges out of the sound-wave of the cicadas and discusses snake medicine and the numerology of the Mayan Calendar. This is siesta.

Siesta is a visit to the oracle,
A stroll amongst the walks, squares and fountains of Delphi reformed.
Siesta is a pilgrimage to the threshold,
The beautiful gate of the garden.
It is the underwater retreat of Dionysos,
And the studiolo of Amphitrite.
Siesta is a walk down the shaded colonnade of the villa of a magus
In the time of il Magnifico.

Siesta is a visit to temple,
It is the resurrection of the medicine snake
The wonderland of Menalcus
The living Xanadu of Priapus
The lazy square of Euclid
The chattering of Oscar Wilde.
It is commuting with the goats
It is rabbit,
barracuda,
government,
whale
It is....cardboard box,
And cellophane
....it is.....
Siesssssta is.............
Cessssation......it is....
It is siesssssssssssss....

sieshhhhh

It is shhhhhhh.....

......(tweet).....................

......shhhhhhhh.....

........(chirp)...............

Mmmmmmmm............

..............

.......(chatter).......

.......................

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


That is siesta.