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first
published in ENVOI 142 October 2005 ISSN:
0013-9394;
In
Collection ‘Frost Hollow’ Oversteps Books, 2006 ISBN:
0-9552424-4-4
Judgment Day
High sun and thunder
clouds of shadow
stir
in spirals to the mountain top;
a
ritual for some god. In another
sacred
spot, ancient robbers dig
Amulets
crosses scarabs
bones
It
is all the same to them ...
Far
away a child begins to shake.
This
is a planet hooked on sacrifice,
propitiation
for the small misdeed,
the
yearn for double harvest and the sleep
wherein
is no uncertainty,
no
waking up to knowing this is it.
Come
Judgment Day archangels rise:
The
calling in of all accounts as
bits
of skeletons re-jig themselves
with
fists on lids and drowning pond and screeches
from
the vulture peck, the cooking pot, the ashes
far
dispersed
Through
the haze the child moves into view.
The
lamb in sweetness meets
the
one who cuts the throat.
Still
in lozenges of blood-red glass the shepherd smiles.
Mummified
a thousand years, an Inca gift ―
a-peeling-back
reveals his toddler face,
carved
deep ― the tracks
of
his long tears.
Down
the sky a kestrel drops.
A
mother screams.
Angel
with your trumpet call
remember
these at bitter Judgment Day.
Mandy Pannett
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