Trevor Joyce


from Ana (an excerpt)

this mis fortunate bitch

may never walk again

something with the nerves they say

perhaps the spine suffered some trauma

whimpering occasionally

she sleeps until they come for her

again the nose flares

forelimbs scrabbling dreamt earth

*

the crying goes on and on

it might be comforted by some attention

relief for hunger thirst

the warmth scents sounds of a familiar body

for lack of these uninterrupted simply it continues on and on

* for Lynne Clibanoff

fissuring faulting jointing

crack thundifferentiated to an interlock of vaults boxes rooms

rivers their walls

stone furniture stone air

diviners sense the strike or dip

when over charged a perched table pitches

afflicting property

overwhelming thirst

*
successively each emperor's doubles were assassinated

then himself

therefore this stratagem

our latest emperor was chosen secretly

no-one informed not even the elect

it worked

somewhere he lives obscurely on

quite unaware he is a god

*
court tombs constitute our earliest examples

local sites exhibit small side chambers

transected galleries

only the largest slabs remain

fallen displaced

smaller stones purloined for nearby walls or roadworks

the ideal form exists in imagination only

-previously published at Masthead