beyond all other art
for reasons i'm sorry to admit
i still can't entirely fathom
but dante at least invented
the genre of cruci-fiction
nailing his parochial enemies
to an eternity of earthly contempt
which surely appealed
to the youthful Stephen Dedalus
of silence-exile-and-cunning fame
but joyce also recognised from the first
that precision was a better revenge
than exaggeration
and by finnegans wake it seems
his ultimate target
has become himself
splayed and vivisected
incarnating all sins
in ulysses though
we face the test case
of gogarty/mulligan
still beloved of critics
for his exuberance
but likely doomed
eventually
like dante's nemeses
to cruci-fiction
once we resolve the riddle
of the midnight fistfight [notes]
and the morning rage [etext] [notes]
and i'm certain joyce
would have relished the prospect
of crucifying all the world's villains
mathematically
geometrically
on the Tree of Life
.
