- new installment in current poem (Autumn Door, tentatively) -

2
                   San Leonardo al Lago, c. 1370

 
Four sides of a barrel-vaulted ceiling
are filled with angels singing - playing
archaic, bulbous instruments, leaning
upward (past vermilion-winged

 
seraphim) to the apex of the vault.
Presentation, Betrothal, Annunciation and
Assumption.  Dense veinèd marble (amended
by dream).  Revolving riddle (spectral salt).

 
Magnetic occlusion of an infant kiss
seals the fate of the Chosen One
(matrix of surprise design -
absolute one-day fresco, this)

 
on the nether half of the altarpiece, the cross-
hairs of the children's stories (crown
of the skull).  When he comes into his own
(the worm quartet, the limbs of Lazarus).