4

Emery blonde wing
slant to the right
knock-kneed otherwise
cursive crashed
a Lancia in flames
reported his
Persian cousin
languid tactile
words loosen
her bodice
veils of scent
myth half-hidden
like a mermaid grasping
beneath her weeds.

Slippery Irish
rivulet Kathleen
from the kitchen
a delicacy
out of purdah
in an old barn
sequestered
cow shit,
sole occupants in winter
of glass house and
iron chair
above the groynes
incandescent.

This place our forefathers
made for men,
trees and flowers
filling the Castle moat
where we saw
a ferret grind
a crow's head
walking back.