A BULLDOG UPON DISCOVERING HIS IMAGE ON THE COVER

The page might tear so easily

So easily a face can rip in two

Two legs, cricket white, might rip

Sinew torn tissue.Too

Golden the eyes circled by white

As white as sharp, as claws

Our hero –

                       onyx eyes,

yes

Raydell     Derrell

theboys  who would

whocould

makechariots

for       gun-shaped    paw

                             . .

Rest   uponthem             pitbull

Find piteous birth        allow

:       whiteto every hue

      notpurple but blue

notblood,         sardonyx

eyesnot

eyes    as claws

Dogs don’t see

colour  they say

suchlies              :

Visions made of tails

               their

             empire

 

 

 

SHE, OF THE COCO PALM HOTEL, IN THE SHADOW OF LES PITONS

Cannot get around it, ahold of it

The sight of it: meantfor admiration

For distance, not to betouched or

Scaled, not a chorus butan indecipherable

Opera. Pale molten notes, and hard.

What it must be like

To put a son in theground

She wears him on a smallbutton

Between cancerousbreasts, Les Pitons,

Silent like a moon, daysout of order.

Cannot get around it, ahold of it

What it must be like

Now the house is gone,crushed

By landslide, a familystill

In it. Such majesty we cannot leave.

How can you live withthis?

Ancient voices

Climbing to green tips.

They no longerinhale—

Red gnashes cuttingsteepness.

Somewhere, the landsecretes sulphur,

Breathing,breathing, breathing.

Who can live among it?

 

 

 

ISAIAH, BORN AT KFC

Between dark and thedaylight

Not worth a hospitaltrip

Dropped white sac,cubicle locked

Empty sea withoutshore

Seas relentlesslyaspire

Chopped, made whole bya stranger

Who fears what you are

Stolen skies, surging fire

What you become, couldnot

Mountains toppledevermore

You came to show usyou could

A tell-tale heartpauses

To scale the enamel wall

Locked in by slickfortress

The dim light beforelight

Feet too small forcomfort

A whisper and thensilence

 

 

 

AFTER SIR CHARLES BELL, OPISTHOTONUS IN APATIENT SUFFERING FROM TETANUS, 1809

His arched body ready forlevitation

Leviathan spores sculptingreversals 

A white rainbow of marble limbs,marvelous arch

Cast at last in veined strictures:

Two arms, islands defiant, no pot ofblack gold

This face from another body, afighting

Samsom grinding teeth,clenched fist on breast

Ankle elbowing nippledmattress—one side

Curled, automaton—tip toes,loins

In thrall to a secretgravity. His, this ocean

Bending planets into oblong shape

Faulted moon-struck: never more solid

 

 

 

 

 

PENALTY ON SECRET INTERMENT

When you turn the page somebody dies.

EXTRACT FROM FINDINGS OF INITIAL REVIEW

The coroner remarks, at    airports 

anyone can          take yoursuitcase off

the  luggage carousel    anyone can   

walk in from               the street

pretending       suitcasesare theirs

the suitcases are theirs      you havenothing

inside it          at some  airports

anyone can          take

nothing to declare

 

 

MORTUARIES

End too soon, turn back thepage

Lethim ink something else, sketch

Someoneelse, else lilies blossom

Estuariesof ironed hair – mortified

Andthroat numbing              pink

Overcomeus, from the outside,

Sleepupon us as we go. Let us stop

Andrest in time, be born again

Abovepaper-white road

 

 

INQUESTAS TO DEATH

PerhapsI should start where he was free

Silverwheels, shed of leather, flaking

His              robot eyes at our feet.

Love them,like him, my kiss on flat chest

      Seduction an inquest as to death,

Silver,not apple white, the faultless carriage

Onroads so asphalt they’d never hold

Allthat slips from these plush seats

Iscarnage. Perhaps touching should be free.

 

 

 

 

FIREAND TREASURE-TROVE

Eachcandle got here on its own

dripping wax on memories

the climbing furniture

dreamt towards hills.

Flame, abandonmahogany

encase me now in wax

in case I am impossible, as possibleas I am made

Lickme, where you have been

PROCEEDINGSAT INQUEST AND PRELIMINARY INQUIRIES

Forever

ready

for lift

–off

in return

                        come

fare

                        again

over

teeth

                        sail to flood

*

Focus on the other animals

things have been set in train

conspiracy suits the rural life

those who disembark

                       stay