Hallucigenia (In Wildness Is the Beauty of Earth)

If you’re lost between floors
and your wait is getting you down—
a fortnight of dying bored
in the here and now—
remember . . .

There is no private language.
When we speak in tongues
everyone understands,
the world will move.

Animals, birds and trees,
people who we love to please:
spell your name in numbers—
in wildness is the beauty of Earth.

Hallucigenia: do what you will.

If you’re between stations
on the road that’s bringing you home—
a lifetime spent alone
on the never-never—
remember . . .

There is . . . [etc.]

Key—A song about the number 14: a fortnight; the fourteenth floor (which is really the lonely thirteenth); the fourteen-legged hallucigenia; the stations of the cross; Jacob Boehme's notion (or numerological conceit) of the number 14 as representing the Spirit moving in nature; 14 as the number of David, the author of the Book of Numbers; the number of charity (caritas: grace)