|
The four books of Lysimachus
 ('The end is to the beginning as the beginning is to the end')
-- Artemidorus
1
The first book
sought divination,
it was hungry.
2
Except time
alters the size of things.
In his veins that ruse was solid;
it sang hymns,
twisted on raw metaphor.
3
A god who never associates
with dying men.
He wanted
briefly
not to have crossed the river.
4
Hippolyta let her horses loose
or was it her women?
on
Smyrna
Ephesus?
In Paphos
acrobats
above a crimson sky.
He made her 20,
asked
And where was I at the time?
***
The Box
I made a box
out of my ribs
And
gave it to my doctor
She pried
the brittle cavities
with
paper hands
murmuring lost air
so my jaw radio wouldn't work
Somewhere
underground
she sliced the segments of
my bent thigh
Sprouting from her tongue
woman
fire
sea
but my ears are brothers to one another
Through the gold teeth of
literary auspiciousness
there is only the law of the mint
(who swallowed hope?)
Next time we stopped I sagged against the coffin.
|
