2.18.2019

Dark Lady, mayhap




BRADY SEZ

Near the headwaters of Mississippi
this silver-gray sinkhole
fixed as North Pole
in frozen vortex.  Photography

captures the chill nether-life
of Lethe (Brady sez).
A trestle-bridge passes,
rusty in the distance.  A pocket-knife

of cottonwood unfolds where innocent
Ophelia submerged at last,
last fall.  Her ballast
was a blast of wrath – so violent...

collateral damage of masculine panic?
Mayhap.  Dark Lady
(all Berryman’s study)
of minstrelsy... America’s Titanic

or J. Johnson’s grace (we don’t ship
no coal) exudes black milk
for wild Melchizedek
nested in Erica-barge (molto largo trip).

Jonah-Osiris was a dove, Columbia.
Like a Burchfield winter
or Grant Wood choir
she might emerge, Jesse Ophelia –

she might molt into an Ariadne’s Crown
stars shining down
around your bulbous clown.
Jaybird of Eli, couched over Washington.

2.18.19

No comments:

Post a Comment