Two Poems

 

 

by Jon Cone

 

 

 

 

THE VALLEY OF RAMS

     after Lorca

 

 

And two

and three

For the moon above in peace

Water dooms the hour

as the white sea dooms

the lady

murdered by the ram.

The girl

is poor, the pine of the pine trees.

And pine

the plume

of the neutrino

inside the rose.

 

And your time

because callow and hot,

and a two

and a three.

And crystal cabins

and papal violins

and snow that walks with the world

and a one

and a two

and three times three.

Oh the endurance of marvelous invisible meat!

Oh golf played by horns of amateurs!

With numerous rams

with eyes of beautiful ladies

with crows of rain

and hogsheads for the ages!

So like a lager of black torsos

and halos of the laurel branch.

 

Endurance pared down

to one designated ram.

One and one

ale-red door of the moon,

two and two

ale-red door of the sun,

and three times three

because lost mayflies remember all.

 

 

 

 

THE FABLE OF THREE FRIENDS: a fragment

     after Lorca

 

 

Henry,

Emile,

Lawrence,

 

Three heralds:

Henry by camel,

Emile by eyes and men,

Lawrence by jadeless universities.

 

Henry,

Emile,

Lawrence,

 

Three key maids:

Lawrence by eggs and billiard balls,

Emile by blood and filtered wines,

Henry by murder and abandoned magazines.

 

Lawrence,

Emile,

Henry,

 

They are three entertainers:

Lawrence is seen as a flower,

Emile yearns like ginger for the olive in the vase,

Henry for

 

Lawrence,

 

Emile,

Henry,

 

Three Chinese mountains,

three hats

three white-outs of snow,

and a cabin

on lunar crust.

 

And one

and one and one more:

They are three mummified

infernal masks

with tinted ears.