from transfiction
by Bill Lavender
ceremonial certainty
sharp swish of a branch
& a hospital of
grammar supplies
we receive but what we give
bury an urn with
not even a card
or chance to decline
a notion of sin now vanished
copulating beneath a full moon
those blessed structures
plot & rhyme
plant themselves with me here
glorious green
tamborine harmonica mandolin
spray-painted outpourings
the ground dry as wood
& even if it could be a harbor
let your tongue savor
the wind melting
light from an olive oil lamp
this is how it came about
preferring any future
love to this present
I could hardly speak
of day breaking for you
the eddies & curlicues
the mule-tongued flowers
the pear's red flesh
what chanted in darkness &
throat bracketed light
nightmare of the I
lying alone
what stranger
scaled the wall
as we passed in the street
light of a prison lamp
that bedeviled memory
at home in unhappiness
with the air of one dying
birds quietly singing
engraved figure guarding
the intaglio self
how sovereign was my touch
I wore your love & pity
nothing
you are the presence of
what were suburbs in 1955
white nymph anterior attention
dancing stoned
no words in you but
that rag of a boy
lying in-state
like a flower
like a golden
sleeve
god’s assistance
the imminent sting
it was a book
thousands of readers
changed in the continuation
the world is round but
what will be brought to us
can’t be remembered
an unknown source
winced when you said it
panting & kissing
to coax into light
that certain
desperate branding
iron hot noon
singular like your
heart with rejoicing
a child sleeps
in a pile of doeskin
snowman rooted
yearning to respond
you touched her sleeping breasts
forgot where you were
freed from beat & measure
& for once not retiring
but wilting
could a dream send up
this dim imitation
that refreshing breeze
turns out to sea & sleeps &
what monster climbs up
inside you to die
