Eratio

Eratio Issue 17

 

 

 

Three Poems

 

by Geraldine Monk

 

 

 

 

Artemis Comes to Tea

 

 

The lacuna of the afternoon

tempts apparitions

in stop-gaps of space.

Vinegar flies or motes or

floaters in my eyes

construct the middle

distance show  -

atomic baubles of

lo-salt spray-on no-fat.

 

With a sigh I excavate my spectacles.

 

Food must be prepared for rare visitations.

Artemis of Ephesus will beam through

my inner kitchen door her unblinking

orbs fierce with unseeing.

 

Here she comes!

 

Rivers of goats and griffins preening

        breasts

bee eggs

                leopard breath

horny things

                    electric claws

lion wings all creatures great &

small gully down her teeming

pleats and plaits.

 

I examine the fare – would she prefer

pomegranates

                        blue cheese

               green

       tea

time assorted biscuits  –  bull’s testicles?

 

I close the door gently and

pray like a mantis.

 

 

 

 

New Tongues for Old

 

 

...should accidentally fall a

fold of shirt should

accidentally fold a

fallen hand should

shake an accidental

pose

 

bees sell

bee swell

on the

sea wax

wing

 

of a dove sung a drover

far away roved wild

went the plover

a wrong raw lap-lap

nest-over

peewit ...

 

 

 

 

Queen of the Bean

 

 

Ms Rule’s over baked kake

 

                  ////

 

cloved aleatory

upside middle

mess down

blewd letting

anarchy

run

a

mock stag

amid the stations

of the rank pullers

 

                  ////

 

                  tumbling

with neck ruff spangled to

shun out this world

Queen Bean

lifts her skirt

á la rhinestone cowboy

showing ankle spurs

in an animal stamp

 

                  ////

 

                  dance

with attitude

beasts and birds

baked in a pie

four and twenty

pudding-black

virus-free frogs ride        

drumsticks on wings

breaking the mould

 

                  ////

 

                  humming

hymns to mortality

sorrowmyrrhsorrow

sorrowmyrrhsorrow

myrrh-pie pudding-be

plum and date reap fest

 

                  ////

 

presentation of the salt on

seasoned wag of tipped-tongue.

 

(So many blossoms on our tree

and not one apple uptit)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Geraldine Monk was born in Blackburn, Lancashire.  First published in the 1970’s her poetry has appeared extensively in the U.K. and America.  Her major collections include Escafeld Hangings (West House Books, 2004). 

 

 


                                               <  e·  >