NIETZSCHE (ON HIS BIRTHDAY)

Nietzsche (on his birthday)

Struggling over an aphorism

you had asked me to chew on

(snake in my pocket, shoes

eagle-winged)

I thought how bad is an

essential predisposition of the molecules

a phase life must work through

in the creation of a

magical good

or that which supersedes

good and bad entirely, whose

power to

change the world, forge

a history, force

a smile

rests entirely in the will

to demand that the world

show its

hand, stick, raise

and there in the abyss

where they compute these

stakes

figure out

the percentages for

Heaven; love.