FATAL SALIENCE
Hobo mumbles along the riverbank
as October air grows cool
& clear. The leaves, old fool,
the leavings... swift canoes, that sank
like royal palms into an azure sky,
into a fiery wheel
of oven-clay. A seal
baked into bright red wax... on our way
to London, Guildenstern. Or to
Verona, Ferrara...
mirrors of Ravenna
(fatal salience, Ursiana’s woe).
Surrounded by wolf-raven, Juliet.
You dance the sacrifice
like unto death (Paris
1913) – knifed in the clammy sweat
of granite vault, the stony silence
of the lie – artillery
deployed (ply over ply).
& does she live or die? Hence,
Hobo-Romeo – you’ll roam
like Orpheus in hell,
sleepwalk a frozen spell
(so buried man goes skipping home,
strange hierophant). Ineffable
grey granary of wisdom,
Ursiana’s 8-pt. dome
gathered to a grain of sable
*
sand... one little grain of sand.
As in articulate horsehair-
dream of Leonardo, air
figures crystal acorn – understand,
it hovers outside everything, & so
transmits clear folds
of Salvator’s bold
Nazir-songe. Swing low,
sweet chariot... ray forth your fire
out of an almond eye
blazing you shall not die
with gallant measure to inspire
the rooster of the Earth to crow
like Voronezh raven, or
like Vitruvian Man
from center of the Earth grow
feathers coppery feathers Ferrarese
Veronese hazy
morris-dancing mazy
corn mandala limping A-Z
sweet librarian Natasha
or Nadezhda sister-doves
swelling dawn alcoves
of spring primordial selah
in the mandorla of the casket-
womb you must be borne
aloft grey Valentine
your sepulchre 1132 (kismet)
10.23.17
