GARUDA!

a story adapted from the Mahabharata

MU*003.14159
created by JASON PILLEY & SUTHARSHINI SEBASTIANPILLAI
for MERCURIUS UNLIMITED

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GARUDA!
Golden-man firebird-man man-bird demon-eyed animal angel,
Electricity-eyed awfulstorm angel, hideouslove god, horror-angel god
I am
Garuda.
Apocalypse-fierce, unashamed and carnivore:
I am Good because it is harder and nobler to be Good than it is to be
Snide or mean or weak or nothing, I am
Everything: the motive flame, enkindling all points of Existence.
I am the builder carrying out the Grand Architects grand Design;
I am the hands the Sculptors shape shapes with;
I am the pen the gods write with: shiningpure strive-flight artisan fire,
Pervasive spiritfire, the blood-and-sweat mechanics of manifestation;
Out of my eagle-sharp mouth comes all sound at once,
I am
Garuda.
Seminal sky-ranger, thought-fast, above storms:
I wear the crown of the King, its too heavy for Him.
I am the equals in every equation;
I am the hurtling of Times arrow, the Life-force forcing forward;
I am the Magicians wand, spellcasting sunlight in infinite directions;
The beating of my hurricane wings propels each moment into the next,
I am
Garuda.
Head of the resplendent procession:
A candle-guide through the dark, a golden boatride over the Abyss.
Every change is a combustion of chemistries and everythings always changing.
I am precisely as warm as the universe,
I am
Garuda.
Who scatters the stars in their different directions?
Who carries the light from the sun to your eyes?
Whos this looking out through your eyes?
Who steers the moon and whirls the world round?
Who breathes in every cell in every body?
Who devours Lifes devourers to fuel Life?
Who pulls the atoms into their places?
Garuda!

Someone is dying.

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MOTHER, giver, keeper:
Girl, woman, witch,
Flowers:
I am the earth on which you bleed;
I am the blood you bleed;
I am you bleeding;
I am Life,
I am
Hurt.
(Son, save me!)
I am
Joyous:
Bleed deep deep into me,
Lover:
Until your New Moon crescents,
Mother:
I name you,
Nurturer:
I see before you do. You,
Deep in
Me.
Wolves teeth and waterfalls. You,
From
Me:
Yoni, divinity, fruit-bearer
Foetus and labour and lullabies and screaming rows
My face in the throbs and twists of the Sacred Tree
The hive with the hive mind
Timeless,
Vulnerable:
Deep into me, I am deep into
You, I am
Dying:
My crystal soul is smashed;
My tough heart is torn;
My voice was stolen;
My infinite arms are in shackles:
And everything that should be living is failing,
And all our hopes end in miscarriage and sickness
And rot,
And where there used to be a future
Son, save me:
There is an Antidote to this Poison.

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Amrita!
The Ambrosia.
Heavens nectar.
Amrita!
The Elixir of Life.
Holy-water.
Amrita!
Grail-juice.
The quintessence.
Amrita!
Soma.
The milk of Potential.
Amrita!
The Cup that cannot be drained.
The health of the gods.
Amrita!
Sweet foam of Times ocean.
Metamedicine.
Amrita!

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BRAHMA:
Thus determines the great Lord of all things:
She will die, there is nothing you can do.
GARUDA:
Ill smother your Light with my darkness-wings;
Fates one more locked door for me to break through:
Give me the Amrita.
VISHNU:
I, the Architect, the First and the Last,
Must inform you: the Elixirs all gone.
GARUDA:
After your future, instead of your past!
Theres still some Nectar beyond the Beyond:
Give me the Amrita.
SHAKTI:
Suffering ends only one way: give in!
Lifes but a butterfly dreaming: wake up!
GARUDA:
Lifes cryptic harsh-soft song sounds so: I win!
Queen Luck needs an eagle to lift her Cup:
Give me the Amrita.
SHIVA:
Sexdeath voidgod I hurt to hurt you I
Kill every instant with a poison kiss.
GARUDA:
That black hole in which all suns surely die
Is womb not tomb: impregnate the Abyss!
Give me the Amrita.
INDRA:
The world starts and ends where I start and end.
O foe, O slave: you failed our Mother.
GARUDA:
Ive built a better world than yours, my friend:
Your weather wont work! Your arms fight each other!
Give me the Amrita.
HANUMAN:
Mountains you cant climb even in your mind
Are naught to me: stronger than anything!
GARUDA:
When an immovable object defies
An unstoppable force: one of us wins.
Give me the Amrita.

KRISHNA:
Why cry? Why make a fuss? All things must pass!
Dance! Dance more! Lets lose ourselves in Beauty!
GARUDA:
Forget how to move, forget how to laugh;
Squabble, fear: if you obstruct my Duty.
Give me the Amrita.
LAKSHMI:
Stabbed hearts, storms and tears, withered wishfruit trees:
Life has to hurt. Im sorry: a door shuts.
GARUDA:
Wounds that cannot be healed are healed by these
Operations. Death tries his hardest, but:
Give me the Amrita.
GANESH:
Your beginnings are finished, your ink dries!
The race has been lost, you ran out of time!
GARUDA:
Out of time I run, into Myth I fly;
Your weapons wilt: the Medicine is mine.
Give me the Amrita.
KALI:
Maggots feast, choirs scream, my heart is dead.
Even our universe ends; go away.
GARUDA:
Time and space might well perish but instead
Ill build other dimensions: a new day!
Give me the Amrita.
VISHNU:
Here: the Amrita! Drink it yourself! No?
The healing Juice: heres enough for you both.

I tumble into the Abyss

And fly through it, up, out: listen,
Hear blank-eyed serpents hiss and flick,
Whirl-round dark scythes whistle and thud;
See drowning-pits, fire-traps: useless
Against this pregnant cry of push.
Existence we purify. Drink!
Bliss prevails: Death itself must die.