National Poetry Month: Dispatch
Apr. 1st, 2008 01:42 pmIt's National Poetry Month! And so, as is traditional, have a poem:
Dispatch by Frankie Drayus
Dispatch by Frankie Drayus
What remains is not your letter
but what you used to seal it
not your fingers
but what they touched
carved in lapis
I wrote you of a hero
in carnelian
in chalcedony
You impressed –
not your oil-and-water-name
but your symbol carved to say it:
in frit a weather-god on a lion-dragon
Which you wore around your throat
I'll never take it off –
Not even when I'm dead
or next to your heart
Scorpion-man and bull-man still battling on a little cylinder
1800 B.C.
1700 B.C.
The numbers always speeding towards zero
In banded agate a king grappling with a lion
(a mute guard stands by)
What held the breath in
the seal out
you pressed further into this clay
Wrote the letter I'd at last receive
Cover your eyes
Say you’ll soon come hunting
in rose quartz
In rock crystal
Griffin-demon and griffin struggle over a calf
1200 B.C.
1100 B.C.
(We count backwards and forget)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 05:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 05:00 am (UTC)And thank you for posting this! I was thinking about it just the other day and had forgotten until I saw your post. Now I must rush off and find a something of my own to post. :D
no subject
Date: 2008-04-02 05:49 pm (UTC)