print previewback G.C. WALDREP
The Lame Take the Prey
for & after Yvan Goll
but which door does the breath open
is it a god of flowers / is it a god of bones
every day an election
among the arteries, the veins
is it a god of wool, the miner’s
vestal burden
he pauses before the doors,
row upon row / —is it a god of doors
driven into the muscle of the breath
now the victor-vein approaches
holding its god to its bruised eye
~
one could declare an end to all charity
one could reprise the torturer’s role
for which the will
weaves its glittering costume
(whitening in the wheat’s blond choir)
from the equestrian depths, the mows
(for which the will weaves
its sober costume)
the coronary moon inclined to pass
through rather than over the forest,
stricken
from the briefs of their former hosts 
The Abandoned Hour
The Lame Take the Prey
River Bytham
St. Winifred’s Well (2)