BUER.--The
Tenth Spirit is Buer, a Great President. He appeareth in Sagittary,
and that is his shape when the Sun is there. He teaches Philosophy,
both Moral and Natural, and the Logic Art, and also the Virtues of
all Herbs and Plants. He healeth all distempers in man, and giveth
good Familiars. He governeth 50 Legions of Spirits, and his Character
of obedience is this, which thou must wear when thou callest him
forth unto appearance.
Fatherless boys take
such mentors as they find,
men with the bodies
of beasts,
with poison blood
maddened by their
own arrows
jabbed into the arm
these old soldiers,
these sages
learn the ways of
plants,
how to make a bowl
of foil
how to crush a pill
on a headstone
stoner apothecaries
and junkie professors
This is what it is
to be a hero,
to be a pupil of
monsters
to learn at the feet
of the dying
how to drink, to
bluster, to fight
to fix, to die, to
hustle
to be a monster is
to be god-tainted
to be a sign, made
flesh
a cautionary specter,
set among the stars
arrow forever cocked
at the scorpion's heart
the boy with addled
brains, hit by a train
the old man with his
head full of purple ghosts
the drunks behind
the liquor store
who will buy a case
for a bottle
all my teachers gone to dust
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