Contents
I. |
In the Dialectic of Over and Under Truth in the Larger Sense “Lives in the Balance” On Death, and Dying’s Threshold “Give Me Men to Match my Mountains” Going-to-the-Sun “But Eternity Remains” Convergence of Time and Distance Tantum Ergo Blood of My Blood Only the Rational Is Real Ecce Homo |
Other Ways to Read
Tarlton Reads from the Chapbook
Other Matters
About the author
About the Artist
1
I was drawn
to death’s seductive luminescence,
his sweet kiss:
and the tang of salt.
when a breaker topples the swimmer
you can smell
and taste shipwrecks
under the surf
glimpse cities
under the sea
a little out of focus
like toy castles
in a fish tank
whole snow cities
chiseled by the winds.
2
I crawled the cutting edge
along narrowest ledges
of high rock;
fields and stone
formations spreading out
below me, the sky empty
above,
a dizzy, spiraling road down:
across ghost oceans
waves of waves ride up and crash.
death astride
his armored Destrier defies
an infinite meteor shower.
3
no one comes to rummage
through our pockets now
— there are no
pockets in our red pallia;
dawn’s blanket
an encircling silence,
an obliterated legacy of tears.
