Wikipedia Poem, No. 741

“For the entertainment of his guests, Nero would illuminate his whole garden with bodies of live Christians covered in burning oil and strung up on flaming crosses, crucified. At dinner he would have the Christians rubbed by his guards with aromatic herbs and garlic and sewn up into sacks and then they’d throw these sacks to the dogs.”

“That’s terrible.”

“It’s horrible.”

“Terrible, is what it is.”

report every word of mouth 
swear vow word statement crack 

word of mouth swear vow word 
put in word 
word
word say-so 
word 

byword word it verbalism aphorism 
aphorism 
        aphorism 
                aphorism
                        aphorism 
                                aphorism 
                        aphorism 
                aphorism 

        vow 
        avow
        prayer 

"Learn to predict a fire with unerring precision.
Then burn the house down to fulfill the prediction."

word style 
utterance style 
pledge style 
trough style 

the spoken words to expression 
express give declaration 
expression affirmation: nn 
word words to mot d'ordre 
communication remark statement avouch 
saw the word in half 
saw saying sentence: nn 

affirmation expression 
verbalize conceive 
saw saying 
positive statement 
solemn declaration 
solemn golem
solum galam

"La pistola che ho puntato sulla tempia si chiama Poesia."

Sources:

• Jarmusch, Jim, Demetra J. MacBride, Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Eugene Byrd, Mili Avital, Crispin Glover, Iggy Pop, Billy B. Thornton, Jared Harris, Gabriel Byrne, John Hurt, Alfred Molina, Robert Mitchum, Robby Müller, Jay Rabinowitz, and Neil Young. Dead Man. 1996.
• Miłosz, Czesław. New and Collected Poems, 1931-2001. New York, N.Y: Ecco, 2003, pp. 83-87.
• Merini, Alda, and Ambrogio Borsani. Il Suono Dell’ombra: Poesie E Prose 1953-2009. Milano: Mondadori, 2010, p. 1007.