IX. Hunger/Still
(After years living with Clarice, Hannibal answers a question about himself)
I suppose curious minds want to know
If Dante still feels a stab of hunger?
Has the consummation with his courtly lady satisfied the
Desire for bodies and blood?
..
Am I then, Dante or Nosferatu?
One travels to Paradiso, while the
Other lingers în iad.
Who better defines me, you ask,
Now that I have been brought to New Life?
..
I will not lie that
Something still stirs within me.
When I (dare to) peer within,
Still, I see the blackness,
Like a latent safe-box,
Holding my most savage of obsessions.
At times, when courage gets up,
Unlocking a sliver in the door,
I see
Control, and fear of lack of it,
Still plaguing my human heart.
..
The difference, perhaps, is
Temperance.
Redirection.
When my anger boils at the rude and unspeakably ugly,
A kind drawl quiets and replaces it with a
Still small voice of calm.
When I covet for satisfaction and flesh,
My mind paints tableaux of
Still quaintness in city paths and country roads,
Joyous laughter shared over humble food,
Book readings by the fire.
..
Some of our stars are the same,
Thank goodness it is so.
I think what lies beneath would
Still
Hunger
If new circumstances had not tamed it so.
Do not believe what is wild has been domesticated,
Still, it prowls like a lion
Seeking to devour,
Only it shuts its mouth and velvets its paws,
Because Beatrice has made it so.
...
(Note: References to Dante, Beatrice, et al. are from Divina Commedia [The Divine Comedy] and La Vita Nuova [The New Life]. References to Nosferatu, the lion, and "velveted paws" are from, respectively, Nosferatu, the Bible, and The Chronicles of Narnia.)