Three Poems
by Geraldine Monk
Artemis Comes to Tea
The lacuna of the afternoon
tempts apparitions
in stop-gaps of space.
Vinegar flies or motes or
floaters in my eyes
construct the middle
distance show -
atomic baubles of
lo-salt spray-on no-fat.
With a sigh I excavate my spectacles.
Food must be prepared for rare visitations.
Artemis of Ephesus will beam through
my inner kitchen door her unblinking
orbs fierce with unseeing.
Here she comes!
Rivers of goats and griffins preening
breasts
bee eggs
leopard breath
horny things
electric claws
lion wings all creatures great &
small gully down her teeming
pleats and plaits.
I examine the fare – would she prefer
pomegranates
blue cheese
green
tea
time assorted biscuits – bull’s testicles?
I close the door gently and
pray like a mantis.
New Tongues for Old
...should accidentally fall a
fold of shirt should
accidentally fold a
fallen hand should
shake an accidental
pose
bees sell
bee swell
on the
sea wax
wing
of a dove sung a drover
far away roved wild
went the plover
a wrong raw lap-lap
nest-over
peewit ...
Queen of the Bean
Ms Rule’s over baked kake
////
cloved aleatory
upside middle
mess down
blewd letting
anarchy
run
a
mock stag
amid the stations
of the rank pullers
////
tumbling
with neck ruff spangled to
shun out this world
Queen Bean
lifts her skirt
á la rhinestone cowboy
showing ankle spurs
in an animal stamp
////
dance
with attitude
beasts and birds
baked in a pie
four and twenty
pudding-black
virus-free frogs ride
drumsticks on wings
breaking the mould
////
humming
hymns to mortality
sorrowmyrrhsorrow
sorrowmyrrhsorrow
myrrh-pie pudding-be
plum and date reap fest
////
presentation of the salt on
seasoned wag of tipped-tongue.
(So many blossoms on our tree
and not one apple uptit)
Geraldine Monk was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. First published in the 1970’s her poetry has appeared extensively in the U.K. and America. Her major collections include Escafeld Hangings (West House Books, 2004).
