The Geography of the Nomos

The Geography of the Nomos

Walking to the gore
through a geography of madness
Built by the cult of the Nomos’
Civilization
Ensnaring the globe
In screaming roads
At least back to Ur,
The herdsman’s home
Old Abraham, the nomeus
Appeals to the Nomos
Secure me (se curas,
Rejection of care) declares
That he’s prepared
To sacrifice the cosmos
To the Nomos
The vacuum
Whose bottomless throat
Would swallow all
If unchecked by Physis, which
Appears through the cracks
Of the codes
As trees, encoils the branches,
Or under Mary’s heel
The slender creatures slip
Through well, escaping
Addled Nomos’ attempt
To swallow whole the whole
The black hole —
Gravity and light
Capture and escape
The grave and the snake
That shape the mind,
And all of its mines, and roads
And texts
Extracting and wasting its depths
In the Nomos’ unconscious
Sacrifice complex
And yet, as immanence,
In Eden, in Egypt,
In the nerves of the codex
There’s glimmering Physis
Revealing Nomos’ toxic falseness

 

Elliot Sperber is a writer, attorney, and adjunct professor. He lives in New York City and can be reached at elliot.sperber@gmail.com and on twitter @elliot_sperber