Xi – a poem by Diana Durham

Xi: The New God, the Dead Man 
for Xi, Second Emperor of the Me Dynasty

Because
you no longer respect
the altar of the sky,
confuse the ancestors
with your past,

You have banished the dragons
from the four heavens
(whose scales are multiples
of infinity),

Cleaved the circle
of dynamic balance,
and branded its symbol
as yourSelf.

You build a wall
around the young
because you cannot
grow wisdom–

your will so mighty now
it has made you small.

Literal-minded,
you worship only
the shrivelled body
of an elderly man,
preserved–horror
parody of Snow White–
in a glass coffin:
the new god, the dead man
you are becoming.