ant5

A SACRIFICE MADE FOR THE SHADOWS

BIRD CAGE to GOETHE

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A Famous Love Letter

War the Queen of Violets

one day she finally

spoke up waking

perhaps brighter days

my friend

King of the Sharks

the church bells sound

most blissful moment

like jellyfish

I would refuse them

but they disappeared

the Queen of Violets

flowed at this parting

part of a question about

as I interrupted the cloud

irrational lines

and my beautiful dreams

the distant far-extended night

in a redwood forest

in the tone of your voice

the Shark King

taking lifetimes

to be with me

wherever I go

my happiness is my home

B.

the Queen of Violets

her hallucinations

in triplicate

Letter to a New Acquaintance

Dear Shark King

I the taste of

being a scarecrow

a fatal weakness for the coast

for the Queen of Violets

left us to ourselves

the fog is so shy

since the keyhole

three phone calls

you wouldn’t understand

I suppose

the Shark King

in a big city all your life

the memory of creating an ocean

if you dropped it tomorrow

with an ocean all over again

under clouds

what do you do for

the Queen of Violets?

you expect another holiday?

the Queen of Violets

part of the bargain

buried her teeth

cordially

after the storm

Vivian

the Shark King

inside the moss

Letter to a Jealous Sweetheart

My Darling

why do you insist on hurting

the Queen of Violets?

our neighbors

to the next life she takes

a fear of snakes

you?

you can’t penalize me for

the Shark King

this argument so often burns

you’re only too ready to believe

the coral’s dream

certainly married to the hands

by all rights he ought to hate me

a steel worker

that’s beyond my control you see

the Queen of Violets

yesterday mother received

the Shark King

a sacrifice made

you read this line

no strings attached for the shadows

I swear

the Queen of Violets

as you once did by writing

she once took a step

outside the city

self again

Lydia

Letter Accompanying a Gift

the Shark King

his memory of stars

Dear Revised

the first frost caught me

dilly-dallying with a sweater

the Queen of Violets

winter without it

a hole cut in one night

I could protect you

against the north wind

love has tamed me

it has kept me with a bomb

chained to my chair

the Shark King has fallen

in love

the result, mother

you may even put in

an order for a muffler

your own

the Queen of Violets

what was her last memory

of me

a bottle of water

awaits

the King of Sharks

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Autumn 2009 / Spring 2012