POEM OF THE DAY
Nunc Dimittis
Pale fish
upside down
skim the roof of the drowned cavern.
These are your children.
Albino mites,
atrophy
of such light,
foxfire
at prey
in limestone arabesque.
Broken twists
of ladder,
of snake,
of wishbone,
blind daggers playing hide & seek
among the archiac smiles
of minuscule gospels,
galvanic twitches
among extinct alphabets,
lucid smuts dropping from the roil
of lacunas,
little lucifers
in the scroll of begats.
Heilige Nacht,
Stille Nacht,
I can not stop knowing,
already a drowned man
as I go down to the dark river, my great wife
that they fail,
that I fail, half a loaf
spangled with tears of mercury
adrift
among the teeming homunculi
and alembic eyes.
"What potions have I drunk of Siren tears..." Shakespeare, Sonnet CXIX
Dana Pattillo
Note: Nunc Dimittis: Canticle or hymn using the words of Simeon in Luke 2:29–32, beginning “Nunc dimittis servum tuum” (“Now lettest thou thy servant depart”). Stille nacht, heilige nacht: "Silent night, holy night."
(PoD 44)
12:26:54 PM 
|
|
