Shang dynasty records on an oracle bone
in the shadow of the gnomon
walls rise
quarter the grid
a central palace imperial archive
like this pen
a gnomon on white space
traces it leaves ink shadows
where light won't fall
Lucifer from my mouth
pouring down
enclosing land with edges.
In the astrobiological (Berthelot)
mode of thought
irregularities in the cosmic order
could only be interpreted as misfortunes.
An Asian bondage skin trade
locked within the network
ropes and walls
cyborg constructions of the fourfold city.
It became necessary to maintain
this parallelism
between macrocosmos
and microcosmos geomantic precautions.
The tortoise-shell oracle
decided the matter
of cardinal orientation axiality
see Wheatley The Pivot
of the Four Quarters.
Paper lanterns
light words on a plane subdued in a cage
of cardinal points.