scribe's tattoo

RIVER WAVES

I miss the mourning doves of Providence

at the end of September

amid these amber

sheaves of wheat (gleaned evidence

of Morning Star).  A new immigrant’s

landed in Minneapolis

light gray, with neckpiece

of black-white bands.  Postulant’s

collar, mayhap?  Or a scribe’s tattoo

ably marked upon the neck

like Isaac or Melchizedek

or some Eurasian collared coo-coo

hums b-flat from the fiery furnace

of her supernatural

affection (international

orange toucan, maybe – or Falcon-Ace)

& so transfigures frozen Everyman

out of his callous armor

into another feathered Amor

winging like an arrow back to Magdalen

& turning to golden almond in her hand

like the sun beheld by Ondine

underwater (bright, serene).

As river waves lap softly overland

her clear tone modulates the earth

back to its mended origin

within your warm all-human

clasp (chastened Columbia’s rebirth).

9.30.19

conversation for kids

LITTLE PEARL

The Hebrews found a verbal replica

for Pharaoh’s pyramids.

Conversation for kids

(& sheep, & goats).  It was Jehovah

came to intervene, to interview.

Some saw an Oedipal

triangle – shadow wall

of mud-baked bricolage (dream stew);

some saw trois anges, craning down

from Paradise – to speak

with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac

(that lightning twin would play the clown).

The pyramids are office towers.

No one will explain

how so much pain

depends on callous fingers (ours).

The just one wears a diamond pin

stuck through the heart –

QUADRANS IN IMO ET

IN SUMMA SUBTILIS (wide-eyed dolphin).

The Middle of the World, he said

& made the sign of six

ways (willow sticks,

or cottonwood).  So truth’s inbred.

Her little pearl of rectitude

is portable – rides

water as a cheek glides

tears.  That’s all (beatitude).

6.28.18

by the long slow delta-mouth

BRIGHT FLASH

That line of poplars in the Corot distance

like on the way to Ravenna

or along the Seine, Papa

– no, only the topmost branches

of a simple sycamore in Providence

– no, just a maple

in Minneapolis.  O ample,

inexpressible, tongue-tied inheritance!

In the heart of the heart of the country

maybe.  Where anguish lives

alongside hope – conceives

the origin of time-&-space, Henry –

this wilderness of unfound, foundered

land.  This knotted maze

where a wood casket will blaze

(portable grail, marine crossroad)

the suddenly articulate harmony

of an integral universe

like that scene on a vase

when Isaac, Ishmael & Melpomene

leave town together, shaking tambourines

a procession to seashore

on the blind side of Minotaur

throwing down scimitars, carbines

for their Thanksgiving celebration

by the long slow delta-

mouth   at the seething O

& ah   bright flash   of seraph exultation

6.24.18