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published in collection In the Affirmative, 2008,

Redbeck Press, ISBN 978-1-904338-40-6

 

Mortal Instruments

                                    

Saw you first at Mass in Notre Dame

through blue plainsong and waves of incense

the Rose Window unravelling atheism

the drunk priest tripping on the steps.

 

Spied you before lunch in the Marais

shadowing that woman behind a plane tree

one eye open, the other obscure brown

caught between compassion and contempt.

 

In the museum you hop-scotched frets

and fractured fingerboard, then disappeared

like thin oils into the thirsty grain

and I wondered where you’d surface next

 

but never expected to find you spread

across a canvas of blood, huge bathers

hugging you to distended limbs

and extending you enormous elbows.

 

Everyone, of course, gave you refuge

moved over, made room for you to hide

left me looking at the women wanting

to be looked at, under the bronze pram.

 

Very soon I’ll come over to your side

my legs setting solid on the plinth             

my shoulders growing marble wings

my mouth happily forgetting words.

 

 

Michael Curtis

 

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e-mail Michael

and in the shop ...
collections -
"In the Affirmative", Redbeck Press;

"Weeks",
Urban Fox Press;

"Long Haul",
"Red Meat Dreams",
and
"Serotonin Days",
Redbeck Press


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