Chase some oranges      Chase some numparals           Chase a bill of the play	At the touch hole      in Hades' lair           the guisers gone
Wilderness paint Ablaze—the sky at noon	Smouldering to step out as words you can't hear
Lines meet on the ceiling: a giant bird cage	Contagion climbs to the dome on gothic stilts
Four tiers and the renter goes      anywhere           but behind the frame	Fantastic at a sennet-pitch      in coils of smoke           the screen crashes
You can lose a shoe or a hat at the pit order, a flash	Every score and script (St Cecilia's harpsichord)
Cut-glass candelabra—sugar-candy      voise verse in the oilman's mouth	Sparks and flakes—crackling      to stun all memory as molten lead descends
See to be seen, expectation      on tip-toe No room and no money returned	Boiling silver with a hiss      to ensure the ultimate pageant
Banquo's ghost in the Greenroom Kemble leaping from a casement Ireland's Horsus cut by the curtain Grimaldi faced with a riddle	A sprite that has wandered unawares never loved these huggers here to stave off ruin topples Apollo to the floor
Fears and hopes      chewed into holding sense	A column of fire      close/remote on the river glaze
Josepha through dungeon spikes Elvira come back in a nun's habit Hermione saved from the flame	Shivers, a gunshot volley cordage blown to the clouds in a late roll
That evening never done      ringing	Drag from the ashes      a peal of bells
echoes in a horse-shoe           on swags of blue velvet	your patent in an iron box           beside one gaunt shoulder
Steal from the stealer      round mirrors a dose of spectromania	Laugh off the smarting tears      calmly take the draught to start again

 

Copyright © Gavin Selerie, 2004.