Torsade Literary Space The Bull’s-Eye (poem)
The Bull’s-Eye They want only the small farmers and the clock punchers The men who know good fit and sound advice And the price of the American suit They want a morning of mail exchange and an afternoon of lunches The organization man who aims to be a profit to his friends […]
Is the raven a raven (poem)
Is the raven a raven Ravense in banishment a portion decreed in traveling provender gold from an inheritance drawn for horses, wagons, hired arms and all supplicants to the shrine lepers under command of the charismatic Ravense spurned favorite of the chief cloraven Now scourge left answering to a wandering hermit’s […]
The Impresario (part thirteen)
The Impresario Part Thirteen Pierre, rocking back, raises his flask with a solemn, studied lack of impudence (although the features of his face tend against him) The baron, he notes, has an arrogant flare of nostril and curl of upper lip, yet he does not fully sneer in spurning this. Saying merely, […]
Bride to Be (part five)
Bride to Be (part five) Alderic. Do I not know the name? Is he that man Tills yon spit of land, so thin and barren Trades in horses… Have a care, young daughter. Vestal to a carven goddess These our conquerors will have you cloistered There your nose may humbly point, as […]
Abdication (poem)
Abdication Your eyes stung and crusted You lie unmoving A sibyl garnering predictions vaporing from sewer grates With her liberality of diction She baits you Bile of the nation Abdication Like a starfish ambulating Your stomach leaves the nest to feed A seesawing cindered feather floats Liver and spine-meat from a […]
Haunts (poem)
Haunts Start at the threshold alive to American anonymity the subject steps reeling inches of play onto a leash Wretched elder of small dogs with matted fur, combing of will argue for the owner no more sympathy than neglect Rage like Lear if he were less the white patriarch Sodden and sneered […]
The Impresario (part twelve)
The Impresario Part Twelve The prisoner’s advocate begins to feel himself followed It seems to him a certainty the footpad is that fellow Who gives his name in fraudulent humility as Pierre “Only that.” And loiters round the guardhouse. The advocate turns on a heel, making the jailer’s victualer Behind him stagger, dropping […]
Bride to Be (part four)
Bride to Be (four) But you say a riddle. Well, I know but little, I am ashamed I have seen twenty winters, nearly…and My father and my brothers buried Where I cannot pray upon their tomb Lady Tamarilde, how…? His ways grew with these falterings Dear to me, confiding and unsure But […]
An Encounter (poem)
An Encounter Memory teaches us data contours the planet We thought we had minds of our own and there In fiber and grit, in fountaining microbeads Unwanted papers sticking to our hands Things that mix themselves among the needed Photoprint generic family members with the better smiles Of thinner people Alba collect […]
The Impresario (part eleven)
The Impresario Part Eleven This fate invoked, Pierre avoids reprisal Lays hand on Tortu’s arm in sad rapport Doing so he slips aside and she Her face washed clean of paint, still washed in tears Yet seen through penitent’s eyes become unblemished Returns to him not knowing by what fault She has […]